A Bloom of Snowflakes
by RantingSalad
Summary: The hospital was all Rey knew with its doctors and nurses, treatments and medications, grey walls and windowless rooms. All she wanted was to get away. She supposed she succeeded when she opened her eyes and found herself in the middle of a snowy field. Sort of. It was what you'd call a work in progress. [Part One of the Kingdom By The Sea 'verse]
1. Planet of the Ood

**AKA In Which the TARDIS is like a** **Wardrobe**

 **So... this happened... Thoughts?**

* * *

For as long as she could remember, three constants marked her room. First was the doll hidden in the back of a drawer, tucked away where it wouldn't be found and discarded. Second was the name tag on the door that marked the space as hers. L. M. Rey—more white space than letters, black on white, and completely mundane. Finally, the smell: chlorine, bleach, and stale air. There was no escaping it; every time she felt her nose finally becoming numb to the scent, an orderly would apply a fresh coat of disinfectant to the walls and floors.

In a fairer world, Rey would at least have a window she could open to defuse the smell. In reality, her luck didn't extend that far. She occasionally let her mind drift in that direction, debating where along the far wall would be the best place to have one. How high up from the ground should it be? How big? What shape?

One that opened would be best, but even if it didn't, she'd be satisfied just having a view. Her room was too high up for her to try jumping out anyhow, and there weren't enough sheets to attempt a makeshift climbing rope. Something to look at besides grey walls would be enough. Some days, she'd agree to anything for a patch of grass, a pile of dirt, and a sliver of sky.

This notion was, of course, useless. Treatment would be administered whether she agreed or not, and refusal never hindered anyone will ill intent.

When the shaking started, she dismissed it as just a particularly heavy cart rolling by. Then the building kept shaking, harder and harder. Shuddering and swaying as if it were made of rubber instead of metal and concrete. Sometimes dust would sprinkle down, and sometimes it would rain rocks as large as her head. Rey was too old for dolls, but that didn't stop her from retrieving hers. She hugged it close, as if the tiny body could protect her.

Every once in awhile, things would go eerily still. The building would calm for long enough to spark the hope it was over until another violent jolt dissuaded her of any such fancies. Rey came to hate these intervals of stops and starts. Better for the shaking to just never end if the quake wouldn't pass. She'd rather the entire world just shake apart than to be stuck in this never-ending cycle of uncertainty.

Worst of all, she was stuck going through it alone.

The first big shake had knocked loose a sizeable chunk of the ceiling. Rey took cover beneath her bed as it came crashing down. By the time she managed to shimmy out, even more of the ceiling had collapsed, effectively trapping her in. The lights had also been knocked out, and she had to determine by touch how much space she had. There wasn't much, maybe a foot in front of her before the rest of the path out was buried. Between the settling rubble, aftershocks, all sound was distorted so she had no idea what was going on outside. Maybe rescue efforts were on their way. Maybe she'd been abandoned and left for dead.

The air was heavy. Dust burned her lungs with every breath. She pulled off her overshirt and pressed the least grimy part to her face as a crude filter in an effort to relieve some of the stress. It was probably for the best since she also felt like she was being smothered and slow-cooked.

Hours later, most of the shaking had finally stopped. She tensed at every echo and creak, anticipating more disaster. Shadows and physical matter became distinguishable in the dark that made everything look ominous. What was actual debris and what was empty space eaten up by the lack of light? She had no way of knowing if some of the shaking had actually cleared a path to the door, or if she was trapped in an even tighter space.

Was it just her imagination and panic, or was it actually getting harder to breathe?

What she wouldn't give for a flashlight. Or water. Or even some sign that she hadn't been left to rot. Most of all, she wanted to get away. Being stuck in a hospital was a hundred times worse when you were literally trapped.

Then again, in a way, her situation had barely changed. A little less space, a little less light, but she was no less stuck. She almost laughed when it struck her how pathetic she was. She was going to die without having done anything or gone anywhere.

Rey could no longer tell the difference between having her eyes open or closed. Even though she knew it wasn't a good sign, her body couldn't help but relax. She ran through every trick she knew to keep awake. Exercise was out of the question since there was literally no room, but she could hold her breath to get her heart racing. She pinched her thighs every time she caught herself drifting until her nerves were raw. Finally, she started on mental exercises, reciting entire book chapters and proofs for equations and chemical compositions.

But it was getting harder and harder to focus.

The feeling of something cold and wet jerked her right back to sharp consciousness.

Rey squinted at her surroundings in disbelief. It was so white she felt blinded. Snow was everywhere, extending as far as the eye could see and steadily falling down on her. Freezing winds bit into her skin, making her all too aware of the thin tank top and not much thicker sweats she wore. Had she finally gone mad? Or maybe this was her brain's way of trying to stay alive. She craved water so it gave her snow. It was hot and stuffy so it stuck her somewhere cold with dry winds. She was surrounded by black, so now she was surrounded by white.

The hospital had a small library of mostly donated materials. On days Rey had been "good," she was allowed to browse through and borrow a few things. Her doctor had a list of books he'd deemed inappropriate and unhelpful to her healing, but if she was crafty, quick, and didn't do it so often, she could sometimes sneak out one or two of these unapproved materials.

She devoured those books, reading them over and over and committing them to memory. There were stories about hobbits and dwarves and elves. Stories about a magical schoolboy and his arch nemesis. A series that began with a lamppost in the middle of a winter wonderland. There was no lamppost in sight now, but there was a blue wooden box labeled "POLICE."

Wood was a better shelter than nothing, she decided, and quickly made her way towards it. Her feet were bare and her toes were already burning. Burning was good though since it meant her nerves were still alive. If her feet had gone numb then she'd really have to start worrying about frostbite. If this was an illusion, it was a painfully realistic one.

She cracked the door open just enough for her to slip through. Heat rolled over her the moment she stepped inside, and she would have happily melted into a content puddle if she wasn't too busy looking around. Whatever she just walked into, it wasn't a box. If she thought suddenly finding herself transported to a snowy field was impossible, then this was downright absurd.

The huge room was lit with golden and coral tones. Four tree-like pillars framed the center of the room where the strangest circular console she had ever laid eyes on was set up. A few wires hung loosely from the ceiling in a manner that was most certainly a safety hazard. And to complete the spectacle was a tall, thin man with outrageous hair standing off to the side. He broke out into a huge smile when he saw her, and that was enough to convince her that she was dreaming. No one was ever that happy to see her.

The man hurried over to her, shrugging off his brown coat along the way. "Rey! Don't tell me you were out there dressed like that? Look at you, you're shaking, we need to get you warmed up!"

Impressively, he managed to finish speaking by the time he reached her, mouth working so fast she could barely process the meaning of his words. He draped his coat over her shoulders. Despite being much too long for her, its soft and warm fabric did wonders to fight away the lingering chill. He didn't appear to mind that the ends crumpled on the floor, soaking up the snow she had dragged in. He just pulled it tighter around her and ran his hands up and down her arms to help rub the heat in.

Rey felt lightheaded in a way that had nothing to do with oxygen deprivation. "How do you know who I am?"

"Of course I know you," he said quickly, hearing her words but not really listening. "Look, you're nearly hypothermic."

He tried to lead her further inside, further into the warmth, but she dug her heels into the ground and refused to move. "Answer my question."

His gaze turned careful as he gave her more than a cursory once-over. Rey instantly hated it. She had been subjected to the same careful examination a thousand times from doctors and nurses. _Something was wrong with her_ , the look said. Something in her file or something she said or something about she was responding to her treatments. _Wrong, wrong, wrong._

"How do you know who I am," she repeated levelly. Getting irritated would only cloud her judgment. It was amazing how much people overlooked or interpreted erroneously because they were worked up. Staying calm was the best way to get all the facts.

"I'm the Doctor." He paused, expecting her to react, but Rey was unmoved. She stared back at him blankly, waiting for the discomfort to settle in. Uncomfortable people tended to blab, and this Doctor was clearly a talker. "You're in the TARDIS. It's a time machine, and I'm sure you've noticed…"

"The inside and outside don't match."

He smiled. "She's bigger on the inside, yeah. Beautiful, isn't she?"

Silently, Rey agreed. Aesthetics aside, whatever this box was, it was science elevated to a work of art. The interior was likely a pocket universe. That, or the door acted as a wormhole to some other point in space. She would bank on the former theory if the Doctor was to be believed about it also being a time machine. The ingenuity was astounding.

Assuming it wasn't all in her head or some form of magic.

She gave herself a small mental shake. If she let him control the flow of the conversation then she'd never get her answers. "You still haven't answered my question."

"Well, it's a bit complicated." He ruffled his hair, making it stand up like a rooster's comb. "See, time travel always makes things complicated; you don't always meet people or do things in the right order. It's a mess, really, and you and I, we're all over the place."

"So this isn't the first time you've met me," she reasoned.

"Exactly! I knew you'd figure it out! I think it's safe to say this is the first time for you? Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. You're a quick study."

Her expression remained blank, but he no longer seemed affected. For Rey, whose lack of emoting always led to a negative reaction, his return to energized cheer only served to throw her even farther. Her brain felt like it was swimming, trying to muddle through the sudden turn of events.

If she applied logic, then this had to be a dream. It would make sense if it was a dream since dream logic dictated that anything went. The same rules applied if she hit her head, or if this was some hallucination brought on by a brain starved for oxygen. Even if what the Doctor said was true, and this box—the TARDIS—was a time machine, it didn't explain how she found herself somewhere that clearly wasn't her hospital room, apropos of nothing. After all, she wasn't the one with futuristic technology.

The Doctor looked at her expectantly, rather like a dog. It should've been ridiculous for a grown man, but instead she found it fitting. His barely restrained excitement reminded her of an old friend. Her only friend, if she was honest. The nostalgia was both soothing and off-putting. Soothing for the obvious reasons of familiarity. Off-putting because she hadn't had a reason to think of her old friend for so long that the memories were fuzzy.

She also had no way to tell if the Doctor was tailoring his reactions to intentionally make her draw that comparison. Rey would like to say she wasn't a paranoid person by nature, but refusing to exercise caution in this case was suicidal and stupid.

"Doctor, I'm ready!" A redhead wearing the thickest, and most practical given the weather outside, jacket she had ever seen walked in. "Rey! When did you get here?"

"Three minutes ago. Who are you?"

"Whaddya mean, who am I? It's Donna. Donna Noble," she elaborated when Rey just stared at her. "Oi, come off it, pretending like you don't know who I am."

"I don't," she said truthfully.

Donna opened her mouth to argue back, but the Doctor cut in. "Rey, this is Donna. Donna, this is Rey's first time meeting you. We talked about this, remember? Time travel means things sometime happen out of order."

"Right, but—"

"No buts! Look, you're ready, you're dressed for the weather, let's stop wasting time standing around here re-introducing ourselves and—" Hands on her shoulders, he steered Rey towards the door and stopped just a few steps shy from it. "I'm forgetting something. What am I forgetting? Got the sonic, the psychic paper, Rey is here…" He patted his pockets.

"Can I have some shoes," she asked, put out at having been physically moved like a lost child but unwilling to risk angering her… she supposed she could call them her hosts since it seemed to be their time machine she was in. Traipsing around in the snow in her bare feet did not sound like fun. She doubted she would make it far.

"Shoes! Ah, wait here."

Before anyone could react, the Doctor sprinted off deeper into the TARDIS. She stared at his retreating back, not quite sure how she should be feeling. "Is he always like that?"

Donna snorted. "If you mean talking a mile a minute, jumping trains of thoughts like they're rope, and never letting you get a word in edgewise, yeah. And worse. You really don't know who I am?"

"I don't. But if it makes you feel better, I'm not fully convinced this is real yet. It could all be in my head." in fact, Rey was becoming more and more convinced that this was a dream. And so she supposed there was no harm in enjoying herself. Forget a view through a window, she was outside! Outside with snow and a proper sky and no hospital in sight.

Donna's jaw tightened at her reply. Great. Not even five minutes and she was already getting on people's bad sides. "Well I'm real. And normally I'd have your head for thinking otherwise, but since it's your first time—how'd you put it? 'Being shot through the space-time continuum like a leaf in Hurricane Doctor'—I'm giving you a free pass. But just this once, you hear?"

Rey didn't really understand, but she nodded anyway. If Donna was a figment of her mind, she sure was a loud and bossy one. Loud wasn't necessarily bad, and it sure was more interesting than silence. As soon as she was done with her retort—or was it a warning?—the tension eased and her lips straightened out into a neutral line.

"Aha!" The Doctor came back bearing a pair of boots and a thick snow jacket, both of which fit Rey perfectly. There were gloves tucked into one of the pockets, thick to keep her hands warm but with the fingertips cut off so she still had some mobility. The fraying edges clearly indicated that this was likely a personal addition. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go. Mystery tour!"

A red rocket flew past overhead immediately after they stepped out. Donna was clearly impressed, and the Doctor clearly wasn't. They exchanged a quip about the TARDIS's lackluster outward appearance. Rey kept her opinion to herself, but unless the rocket was also a time machine, she had to agree that the TARDIS was better.

"Come on," Donna urged, "let's see where it's going."

"But—"

Rey stuffed her gloved hands into the pockets of her jacket. How was it possible that she was still cold despite wearing more than she could ever remember wearing? "I say yes if it leads somewhere warm." The Doctor pouted but followed obediently.

They walked and walked until she lost track of time. Donna and the Doctor maintained a conversation between them in bits and pieces, quips and rebuttals and lapses of silence that did nothing to dampen the mood. She wondered how long they'd been together for them to joke so easily with one another. Every once in awhile, one would look over at her not as discreetly as they were trying to be. She supposed they expected her to jump in, and she wondered if either of them knew how intimidating it was to join a conversation that didn't need your input.

Besides, she had already said the wrong thing once in the TARDIS. If it happened again, she'd surely ruin the mood. So Rey kept her eyes focused on the snow-covered ground and concentrated on not tripping. The snow was at least seven inches deep, coming up to her mid-calf, and there were hills to scale up and down.

The Doctor stopped them atop one such hill, swearing he could hear something. Rey strained her ears, but only the howling wind and her own heartbeat, elevated from all the exercise, answered. Without warning, he broke out into a sprint, gliding across the ground with the ease of someone long legged and with good lung capacity. Jealous, Rey dashed after him. She exercised in her room when she was bored, and physical therapy meant she was in some semblance of physically fit, but her sessions mostly focused on keeping herself limber and her muscles from atrophying, not preparing for a marathon.

At the base on the other side laid a half-buried body. The creature's skin was a muted grey barely discernible from snow surrounding it. Bald and with multiple tendrils coming from the nose and mouth region, it was clearly not human. A white orb was in its gloved hand. "What is it," Donna asked between big gulps of air.

"An Ood. He's called an Ood." The Doctor kneeled and pulled out a stethoscope to examine him. Rey didn't need a medical degree to know that the Ood was in pain. He shivered, but just barely, like he didn't have the energy for even that anymore.

"But it's face…"

"Donna, not now. It's a 'he' not and 'it.' Give me a hand?" Both women joined him by the Ood's side. "I don't know where the heart is. I don't know if he's got a heart. Talk to him. Keep him going."

"It's alright. We've got you. Um…" She looked at a loss about what to say next.

"What's your name," Rey tried. Carefully, she took the Ood's free gloved hand, but he didn't so much as twitch. His navy suit was drenched through. With the rate the snow was falling, he must've laid there for hours, thinking he was going to die alone.

"Designated Ood Delta 50." The orb lit up as he spoke. Looking closer, she saw that a wire connected it to his mouth region. She guessed it was a translator of sorts, or maybe a vocalizer. He didn't look like he had a traditional mouth to speak with.

"I'm Rey. This is Donna, and he's the Doctor."

According to the Doctor, Delta 50 had been shot,. Judging from the grim set of his lips, the outcome didn't look good.

"The circle—"

"No, don't try to talk," Donna advised, but he ignored her.

"The circle must be broken."

"The circle? What do you mean? Delta 50, what circle," the Doctor asked. "Delta 50? What circle?"

Delta 50's eyes flashed red. All three of them scrambled back out of the way as he lashed out, managing to sit up despite the excruciating pain. His sudden frenzy didn't last long, and all it did in the end was stir up some snow. The growls faded a few moments later, and Delta 50 slumped back to the ground.

"He's dead."

The Doctor stepped carefully towards his corpse and rearranged his limbs so he looked a bit more peaceful. With nothing else they could do for him, they left Delta 50's body to be buried by the snow and started walking again. The mood was vastly different now. No quips or friendly teasing, just a heaviness that had nothing to do with physical exertion. Pitched to speak below the wind rather than trying to shout above it, the Doctor's voice was low and somber as he explained to them what the Ood were. "They're servants—of humans in the 42nd century. Mildly telepathic. That was the song, it was his mind calling out."

"I couldn't hear anything," Donna told him. "He sang as he was dying," she added sadly.

"His eyes turned red," the Doctor noted, avoiding the emotional weight of her remark.

"What does that mean?"

"Trouble. The Ood are harmless and completely benign. Except the last time we… I met them, there was this force, like a stronger mind, powerful enough to take them over."

"What sort of force," Donna asked.

"It was the devil."

Rey glanced at him from the corners of her eyes. Whether he was telling the truth or not, whatever the Doctor was remembering was clearly unpleasant.

Soon they came across a large facility. A group of self-entitled looking people were gathered in front of a warehouse, led by a woman named Solana. The Doctor easily convinced her that they belonged, flashing faked credentials at her. Rey supposed he lied a lot. Not out of cruelty; from what she could tell of his personality, he wasn't the type for it. She had met her fair share of people who were cruel in different ways and for different reasons, and the Doctor wasn't like any of them.

But he was a man of secrets.

She hadn't decided yet if that was better or worse.

"Representing the Noble Corporation, PLC Limited, Intergalactic," Donna smoothly tacked onto their names. As she spoke, the words appeared on the paper the Doctor held up. Rey studied Solana for any hostility, but she didn't so much as bat an eye at the change. It was as if she hadn't noticed it wasn't there to begin with at all.

The annoyed suspicion swiftly morphed into the picture perfect example of an accommodating host. "Dr. Noble, Mrs. Noble, if you and your secretary would like to come with me."

"I'm not a secretary," Rey stated bluntly, annoyed at the assumption.

The Doctor sputtered and seemed to forget what to do with his limbs. "No, no, no, Rey doesn't work for us."

"We're so not married," Donna insisted. "Never."

"Never ever," he added.

As taken aback as she was by the forceful response, Solana nevertheless collected herself quickly. She apologized without meaning it and got the tour started. They fell in at the back of the group, taking their time to look around at the large facility. The Doctor was distracted, unable to concentrate on one spot or direction for long. He was practically vibrating, and his hands kept fidgeting in aborted half-movements.

"What did you show her to get us in," Rey asked, hoping to settle him. His antics were beginning to make her feel anxious as well.

He grinned widely. "Psychic paper. Shows whatever you want it to. Brilliant, right?"

"Handy," she agreed. Oh, the places she could go and the things she could get away with if she had one of those.

An alarm went off before she could ask more. Automatically, she tensed at the sound, waiting for guards or orderlies to storm the place. Only they never did. Solana dismissed it as a signal for the end of the work shift and continued to lead the on. Rey didn't believe a word she said. She knew an alarm when she heard one, and she had definitely heard one.

The Doctor's hand bumped into hers, their fingers brushing. Rey snatched her hand back, feeling like one of the many times a nurse jabbed a needle in her without warning. A wince slipped past his mask before he could properly school his features, causing a pang of guilt to strike her. It irritated her that she felt guilty. The Doctor was a stranger and a proven liar, and she had no reason to feel guilty for not wanting to touch someone.

He flashed her an apologetic grin. She braced herself for a comment or excuse to move away, but he remained at her side as they walked. Usually, people snapped for her not to move or that she shouldn't be so sensitive. Sometimes they even forcibly held her in place. The Doctor's lack of reaction emboldened her. She let her hand drop and kept pace with him.

They were led inside a showroom where a group of Ood stood on pedestals, all lined up to be showed off as their qualities were explained. "We like to think of the Ood as our trusted friends," was the most ridiculous line of tailored dialogue she had ever heard. The more Solana talked, the more Rey felt the growing urge to dismantle her pack of lies. To make matters worse, the other buyers just soaked it all in like sponges. They applauded, hungry gazes filled with approval.

Her hands twitched by her side, but she refused the itch of her fingers to curl into fists. The Doctor's face was hard and his mouth thinned in a line. Beside him, Donna looked just as affronted and on the verge of snapping out.

They broke for refreshments and time to personally examine the Ood. The Doctor made for the terminal, pulling out a pair of dark rimmed glasses and bringing up a map showing their location. "Ah, got it. The Ood-Sphere. We've been to this solar system before—years ago. Ages. Close to the planet Sense-Sphere. Let's widen it out… the year 4126. That is the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire."

"Built on the back of slaves—how fitting." Like Egypt, she thought, or Rome, or America. Or even Britain. Any great place was only great if you were on top.

Both her companions winced at her blunt tone. "What's the Earth like now," Donna asked uncomfortably.

"A bit full, but you see, the empire stretches out across three galaxies."

"It's weird. I mean, it's brilliant, but… back home, the papers and the telly, they keep saying we haven't got long to live—global warming, flooding, all the bees disappearing."

"Bees," she asked.

"Yeah. That thing about the bees is odd," the Doctor agreed.

Donna ignored them. "But look as us, we're everywhere. Is that good or bad, though? I mean, are we explorers or more like a virus?"

"Sometimes I wonder…"

"What are the red dots?" Rey pointed them out, spread all across the map.

"Ood distribution centers."

Donna walked over to one of the Ood. She tried asking for his opinion on the whole situation, but his answers didn't help matters at all. "All Ood are born to serve," he reported pleasantly before, like Delta 50 earlier, his entire demeanor suddenly changed.

"The circle," he said desperately.

 _The circle must be broken_.

Solana had all the Ood removed from the room before they could get any more information. They obediently left to their respective hospitality stations without another word. Rey pulled out the facility map from the package they had received at the start of the tour. She had studied it carefully on their way towards the showroom. It was always good to know where the exits of a building were beforehand. Just in case.

"Had enough of the schmoozing," the Doctor asked. She nodded and he turned to Donna. "Do you fancy going off the beaten track?"

"A rough guide to the Ood-Sphere? Works for me."

Sneaking around was a simple affair. Rey, who still had the map, led the way, expertly weaving in between buildings and keeping out of sight of the few guards that were present. Either they were severely understaffed, which she doubted, or the bulk of their grunts were busy taking care of something else. Either way, it was all too easy to time the patrols or duck down another path to avoid them all together.

The Doctor got them pass the locked gate standing in their way effortlessly. "Sonic screwdriver," he explained as he pointed a pen-like probe at the lock. The end lit up and the metal tumblers clicked, giving way.

"Where can I get one?" It would be so handy the next time she started feeling caged in at the hospital. And she bet it was good for more than just unlocking doors.

The P.A. announced the start of Ood Shift B as they slipped into the off-limits section. A group of Ood were being marched across the open field, flanked by armed guards. One stumbled, and they watched in horror as a man walked over and cracked a whip at the fallen Ood when he didn't immediately get back up.

"Servants? Rey was right, they're slaves," Donna gasped.

"Last time I met the Ood, I never thought, never asked…"

"That's not like you."

"I was busy." He snuck a glance at Rey . "So busy I couldn't save them. I had to let the Ood die. I reckon I owe them one."

A nervous scientist, an entitled businessman, and his Ood aid crossed the field. Her nerves tingled in the way that immediately identified him as the man in charge. "Let's keep out of his way," the Doctor suggested and led them off in the other direction.

Eventually, they came across another collection of warehouses. The Doctor had taken the map and buried his nose in it while Rey tried to catch her breath. Exhaustion was creeping up on her again. Between the effort it took to tread through the snow and the distance they crossed, she would've been drained even if she began this adventure with her normal energy reserves. Both of them were caught off guard when Donna whistled loudly to get their attention. Inside the door she'd chosen were shipping containers lined up as far as the eye could see. A giant metal claw moved them around above their heads.

"Ood export," she concluded.

The Doctor pointed to the crane. "Lifts up the containers, takes 'em to the rocket ships. Ready to be flown out all over the three galaxies."

"What, you mean— These containers are full of…"

"What do you think?"

Rey opened the nearest one. Packed inside, standing in perfect rows as they were probably commanded, were dozens of Ood.

"Oh, it stinks," Donna complained. "How many of 'em do you think are in each one?"

"A hundred? More?"

Mind reeling, Rey started tuning them out. She had begun feeling not all there while simultaneously feeling a little _too_ present. She felt penned in, trapped, like a lamb before the slaughter. Irritation piled up and up until it swelled into proper anger and she realized that it wasn't coming from her at all.

Inhale. Hold. Exhale. _Calm_ , she reminded herself. Calm, or she would miss something.

"Why don't you run," she asked the Ood,. The door was wide open, and there was only the three of them standing in their way. The crowd could storm out, rush at them, escape.

"For what reason," an Ood at the front asked.

"Freedom."

"I do not understand the concept."

What did you have to go through, she wondered, to have the idea of freedom wiped from your instinct. How long did you have to be trapped before you stopped thinking of ways to get out?

"Ood, tell me, does 'the circle' mean anything to you," the Doctor asked.

All the Ood spoke in unison. "The circle must be broken."

"Whoa, that is creepy," Donna said.

"But what is it? What is the circle?"

"The circle must be broken."

"Why," she asked.

"So that we can sing."

For the third time, an alarm went off. "That's us, come on!" The Doctor grabbed her hand and this time, she let him pull her along as he took off. Rey ran with a single-minded focus through the maze of crates, turning where he did and trying to pull her thoughts together. Guards stormed into the warehouse, armed to the teeth. Shouts to surrender echoed off the walls and metal crates, making them sound like they were coming from everywhere and pressing in on them.

Rey ran and ran until she couldn't run anymore. Her hand was torn from the Doctor's as she stopped, back banging painfully against one of the metal containers. It always helped to have something solid at her back. Something to remind her that stability existed, that the world wasn't an ocean of swirling sensory details she was at the mercy of.

The thing about adrenaline was that it was great for sprinting, but terrible in the long run. Adrenaline exhausted you, sapped your reserves, and made you skittish and over-responsive. The thing about desperation was that it could be paralyzing just as often as it could be stimulating. Desperation could overwhelm you to the point where taking even one step was an insurmountable task no matter how loudly your mind yelled at you to get out.

Rey tried. She honestly did. She just couldn't anymore.

"We can't stay here, we need to run," the Doctor urged. Above them, the metal claw moved wildly. Whoever was controlling it was looking for them and promised hurt if they were found.

"I can't," she gasped out. No matter how many breaths she took, it wasn't enough. "This isn't real. This is a dream."

"Rey, this is real, I promise."

"Aliens? Time travel? How does any of this make sense? I was in the hospital. There was an earthquake, and the ceiling collapsed. I'm there, I'm still there, I need to get out, but I'm trapped and this is just a dream. I'm dying, aren't I? I'm dying and this is all a wonderful, terrible dream."

Oh god, she was rambling. It was an unfamiliar experience for her, and she definitely didn't like it. The words just poured out like she couldn't control her lips at all.

"Hey, hey, look at me." The Doctor didn't touch her, and looking back, that was probably the reason she listened. She could practically see the adrenaline pumping through his body in the shaking of his shoulders. His never-still arms and the way he kept shifting the weight on and off the balls of his feet screamed desperation. Through all of the conflicting noise, she focused on the sound of his voice, the soothing part of the nostalgia he evoked, and tried to force herself to believe that the gentleness was real. "This isn't a dream, and you're _not_ dying, Rey. I promise. I won't let you die. I won't let anything happen to you."

Her chest tightened and her stomach clenched. She felt as cold as she had standing barefoot in the snow. "You can't promise me that."

If possible, his voice grew even gentler. "I promise. And this _is_ real. I'll explain it all to you, properly, when there's more time, but right now we have to run. Can you run?"

Nodding, she pushed off the crate just in time to dodge the claw. Its operator had finally found them and it was now giving chase, arms wide open and ready to snap them in half. It slammed down just behind them and the force sent Rey and the Doctor tumbling to the floor. She did her best to ignore her burning muscles and pushed herself back up, the Doctor right behind her.

They didn't get much further when the claw knocked him over. By some luck, he wasn't picked up or dismembered, but he did crash into her. They went over some barrels before landing hard. Head spinning, she prepared herself for the worst, refusing to look away as the claw rose and slammed down. Arms open to flatten them, it inexplicably stopped inches from squashing them like bugs.

Guards were quick to swarm them now that they were down. Solana was with them, likely the one to have reported them missing. They were brought back to the shipping container, door now closed and being pounded on as Donna demanded to be let out. She flew out in a flurry, hugging the Doctor first when finally released. Then, to her surprise, Rey received a hug too. The action was tight, bone crushing, and unfamiliar.

Donna pulled away before she could decide what to do. "What about them?" Inside the container she'd just vacated, dozens, maybe hundreds of red eyes stared back. No longer docile, the Ood charged out and began attacking the guards.

"Red alert," the whip-wielder from out in the field, Kess, called out. "Fire! Shoot to kill!"

Rey, the Doctor, Donna, and Solana made a break for it while the guards engaged. It wasn't until they were outside that they paused to catch their breaths, away from the sounds of chaos.

"If the people back on Earth knew what was going on here," Donna began.

Solana interrupted her, still a little breathless. "Don't be stupid. Of course they know."

"They know how you treat the Ood?"

"They don't ask. Same thing."

"The Ood weren't born like this," Rey concluded. "Their species wouldn't have survived."

"Rey's right, a species born to serve could never evolve in the first place. What does the company do to make them obey," the Doctor asked.

Solana shook her head. "That has nothing to do with me."

"Because you don't ask," she shot back.

"That's Dr. Ryder's territory." Probably the scientist they saw walking with the executive earlier. No wonder he looked so stressed. No doubt he was coming under fire for the mysterious red-eye phenomenon that was slowly overtaking the Ood.

The Doctor held out the map for her, asking where they could find Dr. Ryder. When Solana hesitated a bit too long, Rey knew that they had lost her.

"They're over here!"

They made a break for it before the guards could show. "Oh, can you hear it," the Doctor asked. He changed directions, weaving between buildings until he stopped in front of yet another warehouse. Outwardly, it was no different from any of the other buildings apart from its smaller size. "I didn't need a map. I should've listed!"

"Does that mean we're locked in," Donna asked as he slammed the doors shut behind them.

He shushed her. "Listen. Listen, listen, listen, listen." The foyer led to a flight of stairs leading down. Cages were at the bottom, old and built into the structure itself like a dungeon. "Oh, my head."

"What is it?"

"Can't you hear it? The singing?"

Rey still couldn't hear anything.

A group of Ood huddled together in one of the cells, dirty and shivering. "They look different to the others."

"That's because they're natural-born Ood. Unprocessed. Before they're adapted to slavery. Unspoiled. That's their song."

"I can't hear it," Donna said.

"Do you want it? It's the song of captivity."

Hesitantly, Rey nodded. Donna echoed the action beside her. The tips of the Doctor's fingers were shaking a little as they pressed gently to the sides of her temples. "Open your mind." It was strange, like hearing his voice twice. It felt weird; not quite wrong, but not right either. As uncomfortable as having an IV in your arm, yet knowing that it was supposed to be helping you. She thought about pulling the line out. "It's alright. Just calm down. That's it. Hear it, hear the music…"

It was heartbreaking. The song was the most beautiful, most gut-wrenching sound she had ever heard. Her eyes teared up and her chest ached like someone had taken a shovel and scooped out something important. Next to her, Donna cried and begged the Doctor to take it away.

"Rey? Are you okay? Do you want it to stop?"

She barely heard him, caught in the symphony of sorrow and desperation and, above all else, longing. The sort that kept you awake at night, chasing the phantom feeling of happiness from years ago. "How could they live with themselves after making anyone feel like this?"

"Shhh. Let me." He put his fingers to her head again and the music was gone.

She swallowed down the leftover feelings, imagining she could swallow the music's echo with it. "We can't let them get away with this."

"We won't."

The door clattered open above them. "They're breaking in," Donna warned.

"Ah, let 'em." The Doctor managed to unlock the cage. The Ood instinctively tried to move away as he shuffled towards them. It looked like they were all protecting something in their hands.

Rey ducked in after him. "What are you holding?" She tried to keep her voice gentle. As much as a person like her could, at least.

One of the Ood looked at them shyly. "Friend," the Doctor assured him. "Rey, Doctor, Donna, friend. Look at me. Let me see." He held out his cupped hands, receiving a grey lump.

"Is that—" Donna cut herself off, a little disgusted.

"A hindbrain," the Doctor explained. "The Ood are born with a secondary brain. Like the amygdala in humans, it processes memory and emotions. You get rid of that, you wouldn't be yourselves anymore. You'd be like an Ood, a processed Ood."

"So the company amputates the hindbrain and stitches the translator on in its place?" Rey felt sick just asking.

"Like a lobotomy," Donna concluded, horrified. "I spent all that time looking for you two, Doctor, Rey, because I thought it would be so wonderful out here. I want to go home."

He looked at her, stunned and hurt, but the guards caught them before he could reply. In a show of angry defiance, the Doctor slammed the cage shut. "What are you gonna do, then? Arrest me? Lock me up? Well, you're too late! Hah!"

It wasn't the smartest plan. Or a smart one at all. Or even a plan, really. They cage was swiftly unlocked and they restrained, brought up to the executive office in an orderly fashion, and then handcuffed together and to a pole. The guard faltered when he reached Rey. "This one too? She looks all of ten years old."

"I'm eighteen," she protested stubbornly.

"Yes, that one too," the boss said.

She ended up shoved in the middle with the Doctor on her right and Donna on her left. The metal of the cuffs bit into her wrists, nearly cutting off her circulation and voiding any chance of wiggling free. She wished she had a paperclip so she could pick the lock.

"Why don't you just come out and say it," Halpen asked. "FOTO activists."

"If that's what Friends of the Ood are trying to prove, then yes," the Doctor agreed angrily.

"The Ood were nothing without us—just animals roaming around on the ice."

"That's because you can't hear them," Rey shot back. _You idiot_ went unsaid, but judging from the twitch in his brow, the implication was nonetheless received. "Just because you can't understand something, doesn't mean it's unintelligent."

"They welcomed it," he countered. "It's not as if they put up a fight."

"You idiot," Donna voiced. "They're born with their brain in their hands, don't you see? That makes them peaceful! They've got to be because a creature like that would have to trust anyone it meets."

"The system's worked for 200 years," Halpen insisted, thinking like a businessman and not like a human being. "All we've got is a rogue batch. But the infection is about to be sterilized." He raised a comm device, asking for a status report.

"Canisters primed, sir," Kess replied. "As soon as the core heats up, the gas is released. Give it 200 marks… and counting."

"You're going to gas them," the Doctor exclaimed, struggling violently to get free.

"Kill the livestock. The classic foot-and-mouth solution. Still works."

It was a day for alarms as yet another went off. Halpen twitched again, full-bodied this time. He, Dr. Ryder, and Ood Sigma left the office to check what was going on. Rey heard gunshots and yelling through the door. There must have been another red-eye outbreak, but knowing that the Ood were fighting back didn't make her feel better. They were supposed to be a gentle, peaceful race. To see how far they'd been driven made her feel sick.

The P.A. announced an emergency situation. A few minutes later, Halpen returned, feathers ruffled, and declared a change of plans.

"No reports of trouble off-world," Dr. Ryder told him. "It's still contained to the Ood-Sphere."

"Then we've got a public duty to stop it before it spreads."

"What's happening?"

"Everything you wanted, Doctor, no doubt there'll be a full police investigation once this place has been sterilized so I can't risk a bullet to the head. I'll leave you to the mercies of the Ood."

He turned to leave, but the Doctor called out to him again. "There's something else, isn't there? Something we haven't seen."

Donna glanced over, confusion evident in her expression. "What do you mean?"

"A creature couldn't survive with a separated forebrain and hindbrain, they'd be at war with themselves. There's got to be something else, a third element. Am I right?"

"Again, so clever."

"It's connected to the red-eye," Rey figured. And probably the circle the Ood kept mentioning. "What is it?"

"It won't exist for very much longer. Enjoy your Ood." The door banged shut loudly behind Halpen.

No matter how they struggled, they couldn't get free. Rey thought about telling the Doctor or Donna to break one of her thumbs, but the cuffs were so tight that she wasn't sure it would make a difference. They only had a few minutes alone before the Ood finally made their way into the office. Menacing red eyes glowed brighter as they advanced. Translation orbs were held up like weapons, and she had a feeling that the bite was much worse than a standard electroshock weapon.

"Rey, Doctor, Donna, friends," the Doctor tried.

"The circle must be broken," Donna shouted.

They repeated it over and over, hoping to get through. _Rey, Doctor, Donna, friends. The circle must be broken. Rey, Doctor, Donna, friends. The circle must be broken._ At the very last moment, the Ood stopped.

She held her breath, heart caught in her throat.

"Rey. Doctor. Donna. Friends."

"That's me! Us!"

"Yes, that's us! Friends! Oh, yes!"

"Can you let us go?"

Kindly, they did. As soon as they were free, Rey, the Doctor, and Donna ran out and across the compound. "I don't know where it is," the Doctor admitted. "I don't know where they've gone!"

"What are we looking for?"

"Might be underground, like some sort of cave or…" The shockwave of a nearby explosion sent them to the ground. If this was real, Rey was going to be covered in bruises after all this. "Alright?"

She pointed to Sigma. The Ood was standing out in the open, completely at ease like he wasn't in the middle of a warzone. Patiently, he waited for them to get up before leading them to Warehouse 15. Both Dr. Ryder and Halpen were inside, standing in front of a giant brain. Some kind of force field kept it contained, delivering harsh zaps every few seconds.

"The Ood Brain. Now it all makes sense. That's the missing link. The third element, binding them together. Forebrain, hindbrain, and this. The telepathic centre. It's a shared mind… connecting all the Ood in song."

Her ears registered the click of a gun's safety being released. Halpen held the weapon at them looking to be near the end of his rope. The Doctor took a half step forward in front of her in a protective gesture was appreciated, but unnecessary. Unless he was bulletproof or Halpen was a spectacularly bad shot, there were plenty of bullets to go around.

"Cargo. I can always go into cargo. I've got the rockets, I've got the sheds. Smaller business. Much more manageable without livestock."

"He's mined the area," Dr. Ryder warned. Clearly something had caused him to shift loyalties, if he was ever on Halpen's side in the first place.

"You're gonna kill it."

"They found that thing centuries ago beneath the northern glacier."

"The pylons…" Rey tried to keep her voice down. "The circle."

"'The circle must be broken,'" Donna quoted in realization.

"Dampening the telepathic field, stopping the Ood from connecting for 200 years," the Doctor reasoned out.

Caught in his own world, Halpen ignored them, trying to clean up and make contingencies. "And you, Ood Sigma, you brought them here. I expected better."

"My place is at your side, sir." Sigma moved to stand by the other man.

"Still subservient. Good Oo…"

"So it's taken them this long to adapt," Rey asked, trying to make sense of everything.

"But the process was too slow," Dr. Ryder added. "You should have never given me access to the controls, Mr. Halpen. I lowered the barrier to its minimum. Friends of the Ood, sir. It's taken me ten years to infiltrate the company. And I succeeded."

"Yes. Yes, you did." Coldly, without hesitation or remorse, Halpen shoved Dr. Ryder over the railing. He fell screaming down into the brain, swallowed up by the longitudinal fisher.

"You… murdered him," Donna gasped out, sounding as horrified as Rey felt.

"Very observant, Ginger. Now then, can't say I've ever shot anyone before… Can't say I'm gonna like it, but, uh, it's not exactly a normal day, isn't it? Still…"

Sigma stepped in front of him before he could fire and offered out a shot glass filled with clear liquid. "Would you like a drink, Sir?"

"I think hair loss is the least of my problems right now, thanks."

"Please have a drink, sir," Sigma genially insisted.

"If— If you're gonna stand in their way, I'll shoot you too." Halpen's voice wavered, but it wasn't out of fear or indecisiveness. It also gained a strange quality as he forced out the last few words out. A throaty gurgle tinged his speech like he was trying to keep something down. "Have… Have you… poisoned me?"

"Natural Ood must never kill, sir."

"What's in the drink," Rey asked.

"Ood-graft suspended in a biological compound," Sigma answered. He didn't reassure her of Halpen's fate. After all, there were a lot of things worse than death. The Ood had already been driven so far, and she couldn't help the feeling in the pit of her gut that worried they might've been pushed a step too far.

But maybe… They were such a kind, peacefully species by nature. She hadn't felt any of the anger and frustration the red eyed Ood seemed to radiate in their song. Even now, Sigma didn't give off any hint of hostility. Maybe this was going to be a show of a different kind of do-or-die.

"What the hell does that mean," Halpen choked out.

"Oh dear," the Doctor remarked, realizing something the others hadn't.

"Tell me!"

The thing about desperation, was that as debilitating and paralyzing as it could be, it could also be the strongest catalyst in the world. Desperation drove people further than they could ever get on their own. The Ood were desperate, and in their desperation, they didn't just lash out.

They'd gotten creative.

"Funny thing, the subconscious. Takes all sorts of shapes. It came out in the red-eye as revenge. It came out in the rabid Ood as anger. And then there was patience. All that intelligence and mercy focused on Ood Sigma. How's the hair loss, Mr. Halpen," the Doctor asked.

"What have you done?"

"Oh, they've been preparing you for a very long time. And now you're standing next to the Ood Brain. Mr. Halpen, can you hear it? Listen."

The gun clattered to the floor. Halpen's hands came up to grab his head. Shudders racked his body, and he cried out as they overtook him. When his hands came away, his scalp went with, splitting down the middle to reveal a new Ood head underneath. The tattered skin fell to the ground as tendrils spilled out from his mouth.

"They— they turned him into an Ood," Donna asked like she hadn't just seen it herself.

"Yup."

"He's an Ood."

"I noticed."

With a plop, the newly transformed Halpen coughed up his secondary brain. "He has become Ood-kind and we will take care of him," Sigma announced, just as genially as Rey imagined he repeatedly offered Halpen the tonics that led to his transformation.

"I'm not sure if he deserved that," she said. "But I suppose it's better than killing him. Is it always like this with you?"

Donna snorted. "You have no idea. Traveling with you and the Doctor, I can't tell what's right and what's wrong anymore."

"It's better that way," he said. "People who know for certain tend to be like Mr. Halpen." A sudden rapid beeping reminded him of the nearby bomb. He rushed over to disarm it, succeeding with ease. "That's better. And now… Ood Sigma, will you allow us the honor?"

"It is yours."

He waved Rey over to the controls and pointed to the correct button. It was big and red, fitting in a way she couldn't explain. "Stifled for over 200 years, but not anymore. The circle is broken. The Ood can sing!"

Her hand slammed down on the release, shutting the force field off. It was quiet for a moment until a song, beautiful and so, so happy filled her ears.

Donna let out a delighted gasp. "I can hear it!" Sigma raised his hands in the air in a celebratory gesture. The Doctor pulled her in a crushing embrace. Rey hesitated for a moment before hugging him back, arms coming up to so she could grip at his brown coat. It felt weird to be this happy, like she wasn't sure if it was allowed. The feeling bubbled in her belly, effervescent, and threatened to burst out of her like hiccups.

The warmth lasted all the way back to the TARDIS, through the hills and fields of piled up snow. "The message has gone out," the Doctor told them. "That song resonated across the galaxies. Everyone heard it. Everyone knows. The rockets are bringing them back. The Ood are coming home."

Sigma led the group of Ood who had come to send them off. Rey hoped that all that patience of him would help in his new leadership position. "We thank you, Rey, Doctor-Donna, friends of Ood-kind. And what of you now? Will you stay? There is room in the song for you."

"Oh— We've— I've sorta got a song of my own, thanks."

"I think your song must end soon."

The Doctor paused. "Meaning?"

"Every song must end. But you're song is just beginning," Sigma said to Rey.

Choosing to mull it over later, the Doctor agreed. "What about you," he asked Donna. "Do you still want to go home?"

"No. Definitely not."

He grinned. "Then we'll be off."

"Take this song with you. And know this, Rey, Doctor-Donna, you will never be forgotten. Our children will sing of the Rey and the Doctor-Donna, and our children's children, and the wind and the ice and the snow will carry your names forever."

* * *

She wasn't sure what she expected to happen upon returning to the TARDIS. Waking up, maybe, or simply reappearing in her hospital room the same way she had appeared in the middle of the snow. Neither happened, and there were no signs of either occurring anytime soon. Rey waited awkwardly until Donna retreated to her room to ambush the Doctor. Though bone tired and already sore, nothing would stop her from getting her answers. As thrilling and satisfying as their adventure had been, she was still so confused. "You said you'd explain it to me."

Fiddling with a few controls, he set the TARDIS on autopilot before plopping down on the edge of the grated platform. He pat the empty space next to him as an invitation, but she stood her ground by the pillar. It had the best vantage of both the door and the mouth of the corridor.

A look of hurt flashed across the Doctor's face. "What do you want to know?"

Rey paused. She wanted to demand to be told everything, but she had a feeling that things would turn out terribly if she did. The Doctor might lie, or he might omit a few details. No matter if it was by whim or necessity, she knew she'd be hurt in the future when she found out. She also knew herself enough to know that she'd get angry if he said outright he couldn't tell her anything. Either way, it was no way to build the foundation of any relationship, and if the Doctor could be believed, this was just the beginning of theirs.

"Let's say I believe you that this is all real… What do I do here? You said this wasn't the first time we met, and Donna knew who I was too, so I just… jump around in time?"

"Well I wouldn't say 'jump.' It's more like you materialize via spatial-temporal modulation centering around a fixed existence throughout time and space… yeah, you jump timelines. One specifically. Mine."

She swallowed down the immediate reflex to deny it. "How is that even possible? You travel in this huge time machine and I don't even wear a wristwatch."

"I'm working on that." So he had a theory, but whether it was because it was immature or he didn't want to upset her, he chose not to disclose it. "But Rey, there are a few things you need to know about me, well, more than a few things, but a few key things."

"Like what?" She almost wished she hadn't asked. Time Lords, two hearts, and… "You change your face?"

He winced. "Regeneration. New face, new everything."

"Does it hurt?"

The smile he gave her was awful. Rey hadn't known before now that curving your lips upward could form a cringe. Clearly this wasn't a topic he liked discussing. He probably didn't even like to think about it. "The reason I'm telling you this is because your 'jumping' isn't just limited to this me. So if you see another man with a different face calling himself the Doctor… he's me. Or I'm him."

"How long do these trips usually last?"

He shrugged. "Shortest was a few hours. The longest so far has been fifteen days."

"And this is what you do? You take people around the universe, play tourist, and help out when you can?"

He shrugged again. "It's what we do, yeah."

"I'm not good at helping people," she warned. "Or interacting with them in general. Ask anyone."

"You helped the Ood today," he pointed out. And you're always saving me."

Rey didn't know what to say to that. The person the Doctor and Donna had described didn't sound like her at all. Part of her was sure that they were mistaken. Maybe there was some other girl who traveled the Doctor's timeline, making witty remarks and helping to save the day.

Another part of her, quieter and more hesitant but just as large, wanted to be that girl. Adventure called to her, enticingly sweet and finally within reach. Wearing the face of an all-too magnetic man and his impossibly wonderful box.

She folded up those trains of thought for later perusal since it seemed she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. "Will you give me a tour? I should know my way around since I'm going to be sticking around for a while."

This time, the Doctor's grin was genuine. Rey didn't return it, but she did take the first step towards him.

"You're gonna love the library."


	2. Curse of the Black Spot

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed! It's nice to see I'm not just shouting to the void alone. Here's chapter two AKA In Which Nurses are Like Sharks. Enjoy!**

* * *

Rey landed hard and really hoped it wasn't going to be a pattern. She had jumped twice since her first adventure, both times with the same Doctor. So far all her landings had been a miss. The second jump had her sprawled on the floor, and the third landing ended with her falling to her knees.

The actual sensation of jumping was strange. When she disappeared, it felt like she was fading away. Her senses would dull; hearing went first, and sight last. There was a moment of darkness where she never failed to fear that maybe she wouldn't "land" and that maybe she really was dying this time. Reappearing was like snapping awake, complete with that panicked sensation of falling. There was no gradual awareness, no teetering on the edge of consciousness. Everything came at her all at once until it bordered on sensory overload.

Still on the floor, she realized the rocking sensation was because she was on a ship. An old ship, not like the modern metal ones, and not a spaceship. It was an old wooden ship, and it was very dank. The smell of salt hung heavy in the air, along with some other unsavory scents.

The door opened and a girl with red hair who definitely wasn't Donna was forced into the room. She yelled back some creative insults at whoever had pushed her inside. Rey shuffled to her feet. The Doctor had given her a quick rundown of the major traveling companions from his past, but this girl didn't look like any of them. Was she in his future, then? Judging from how she was dressed and what she'd yelled, she didn't belong on a ship like this.

"Rey! You're back!" The redhead instantly brightened when she caught sight of her, hurrying to her side to give her a tight hug. Rey had a brief moment of deja vu back to Donna and wondered if so much hugging was a thing normal people did or if it was particular to gingers. "What's wrong," she when Rey didn't hug back.

There was no point in beating around the bush. "Who are you?"

She jerked back and studied her. "It's me, Amy." When Rey gave no sign of recognition, she realized what what going on. "Wait, this isn't…"

"This is my first time meeting you." distantly, she wondered how many times she would have to do this. Frankly, it was starting to feel like everyone was in on a secret except her.

"Oh." Amy deflated a little. "So this is all new to you then, right? It's not your first time, is it?"

Rey tied her dark hair back. The humidity made it stick to her neck uncomfortably, and if all her previous jumps were any indication, she was anticipating the need to run soon. "It's not. Where are we? And when?"

"The Doctor said 17th century. Apparently there was a distress signal, but good luck finding one here." Amy made a face like she was remembering an argument she already had.

"Where is the Doctor?" Would he even be the same Doctor? He said he could change his face and even showed her pictures of his previous incarnations…

"He's upstairs with Rory. Rory Williams, my husband."

Rey looked around some more. The fact that they weren't all together was weird. There was no reason to separate them if they were all prisoners. She didn't know much about ships from the 1600s, but she had a feeling that this wasn't an ordinary one. "Are the crew pirates? Since he isn't with us, I'm guessing the Doctor said something that didn't help clarify things at all?"

"They're making him and Rory walk the plank." Now that the excitement had died down, Amy looked worried.

A coat and tricorn hung on a peg by the door. In the corner was an open chest of swords conveniently propped up against the wall. She handed Amy one and tested the other in her own hand. It was heavier than she imagined it would be, but not unwieldy. "I guess it's our job to save them then."

Amy grinned. She wanted to charge back on deck, but Rey convinced her to go for a sneak attack instead. They were outnumbered and technically the Doctor and Rory were hostages. Direct confrontation would just raise the number of casualties.

She crept quietly across deck while Amy went the other way. The rocking and creaking of the ship covered the sounds of their steps. A brunette who couldn't seem to figure out what his hands were for was trying, and failing, to talk his way down from the plank. It had to be the Doctor; no one else could stick their foot in their mouth that much. Or dress like that. He'd changed his face, just like he said he could.

It shouldn't have made her sad, but for some reason it did.

"Where are the rest of the crew? This is a big ship. Big for five of you. I s'pose the rest of them are hiding some place and they're going to jump out and shout 'boo.'"

"Boo."

The tip of her blade was aimed squarely at Captain Avery's throat. For once, Rey was grateful for her deadpan expression. She wasn't going to kill him, but it helped to make the act more convincing. And his shocked expression was immensely satisfying. "Put the gun down," she commanded. He hesitated for a split second before obliging.

"The rest of you, on your knees," Amy told them.

"Rey! Amy, what are you two doing?"

"Saving your life. Okay with that, are you?"

"Put down the sword," Avery growled. "A sword could kill us all."

"That's the point," Rey said neutrally. "Doctor, feel free to step down at anytime."

One of the pirates charged her, wooden paddle in hand. He swung down with the intent to crush her skull. Rey pulled her sword arm back and did a half-twirl, half-twist to dodge. Chaos immediately broke out as the Doctor ran forward to help only for Avery to punch him back. Amy raced over, ushering the pirate with the oar across the deck with her sword. The terrified expression on his face was nearly comical as Amy, twice as thin and a head shorter, corralled him back.

Rey held off two others from helping out. Like their crewmate, they kept switching back and forth from lashing out to being scared stiff of getting hurt in return. Every time she stepped forward, they reared two steps back. Only when she showed no signs of attacking did they muster up the courage to advance back on her. When she stepped forward to meet them, they'd scurry back again.

A gasp caught her attention, and she turned to assess the situation. Amy had managed to nick Pirate One, though it didn't seem life threatening. "You have killed me," he told her dramatically, cradling his injured hand to his chest.

"No way. It's just a cut. What sort of rubbish pirates are you?"

"One drop, that's all it takes," Avery breathed. "One drop and she will rise out of the ocean."

"She," Rey echoed, only to be ignored.

"Come on, I barely even scratched him. What are you all in such a huff about?"

Pirate Four took advantage of the lull to sneak up behind Amy. She swung out on a rope to dodge him but lost her sword in the process. Another man—Rory, Rey presumed from his modern clothing—tried to catch it only to nick his hand on the edge. They all watched as a black spot appeared on the center of his palm, barely larger than a ten pence coin.

"Doctor? Rey? What's happening to me?"

"She can smell the blood on your skin. She's marked you for death," Avery warned.

"She," Rory repeated.

Rey shifted her focus back on the captain, who seemed to know the most about what was going on. "You're not helping anyone by being vague. Some specificity wouldn't hurt. She who?"

"A demon, out there in the ocean."

The Doctor's body radiated heat, warming her chilled skin as he came to her side, so close they's be touching if she so much as twitched. She found her instincts warring between _yes, warmth_ and _no, touching_. Being around a different Doctor was a little weird. "Okay. Groovy. So not just pirates today. We've managed to bagsy a ship where there's a demon popping in." He grabbed Rory's hand and examined it quickly. "Very efficient. I mean if someone's going to kill you, it's nice that it drops you a note to remind you."

In the distance, a woman started singing. Soft at first, the melody grew louder and closer quickly. It sounded more like an instrument than a person, like a full on acapella performance of an orchestra, only condensed into one single voice. Rey had never heard anything like it. Not even the Ood songs could compare. There was something disarmingly alluring about it, like if she kept listening she would never be satisfied with anything else.

One of the pirates commanded the others to shut their ears.

"The creature. She charms all her victims with that song," Avery growled.

"Oh, great, so put my fingers in my ears. That's your plan? Doctor, come on, let's go. Let's go back to the… back to the…" Rory trailed off. His eyes glazed over, his face went lax, he swayed on his feet, and a dumb, lazy grin stretched out on his lips. It was like he was drunk. Or drugged. "You're so beautiful," he told his wife.

"What?"

"I love your get up." Amy had put on the coat and hat from below deck. "That's great. You should dress as a pirate more often. Cuddle me, shipmate."

"Rory, stop."

"Rey! Look guys, Rey's back. Everything is totally brilliant, isn't it? Look at these brilliant pirates. Look at their brilliant beards. I'm going to grow a beard."

"You're not," Amy told him.

"The music turned them into fools," Avery grunted out. The other injured man, the one Amy had cut, was acting similarly silly.

The water on the ship's starboard side glowed green. Seconds later, a ghostly woman, transparent and glowing the same emerald shade, flew up and landed on deck. Like magnets towards a charge, Rory and Pirate One tried to get to her. Amy managed to catch her husband and hold him back, but the others were too scared to grab Pirate One. He disappeared the instant he touched the Siren with a flash and shriek.

Rory kept insisting he needed to do the same. The Siren hissed and turned an angry red at Amy as she tried to stop him. An invisible force sent her flying, landing on her back a few feet away with a loud thud.

Rey rushed to her side, checking her over quickly. No blood or broken bones, just the wind knocked out of her and a bit of shock. The Doctor ordered everyone into the hold. He helped Rey and Amy up, ushering them to the others before running back out and grabbing Rory. The music cut out as the door slammed shut.

Down below they splashed through the foot high flood of seawater. Avery gave them a quick rundown of the situation: the ship was becalmed and the Siren had been picking off the injured crew members one by one. Pirate Three likened her to a shark.

"Okay," the Doctor agreed. "Just like a shark. In a dress. And singing. And green. A green singing shark in an evening gown." Rey stifled the urge to smile. At least one thing was for sure: life with the Doctor would never be boring. And despite the danger, it wasn't without humor. It was much better than being stuck in a hospital room without even a window to look out of.

He grinned at her. "Hello."

"Hi."

"The ship is cursed," Avery complained.

"Yeah, right. 'Cursed' is big with humans. Means bad things are happening but you can't be bothered to find an explanation."

"Amy said you were following a distress signal—could that be connected," she suggested.

"See? Look at Rey, she's actually thinking."

"She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Rory said dreamily, speaking of the Siren.

"Actually, I think you'll find she isn't." Amy's mouth thinned into a line. "We have to leave. Right now."

"What about the TARDIS?"

"That thing of yours is really a ship," Avery asked. If he saw it materializing it would explain why he was so quick to try and kill the Doctor and Rory. Then again, just about anything could have set him off. He was a pirate near the end of his rope, and the Doctor had more than a little problem with authority figures.

"Well it's not propelled by the wind."

"Show me. Weigh anchor. Make it sail!" He pulled out his gun threateningly. Rey hadn't even seen him pick it up amid the confusion on deck, but she shouldn't have been surprised that he'd taken the time to do so. Or if it turned out he'd had an extra pistol hidden away somewhere else.

The Doctor was quick to position himself in front of her. "And the gun's back. You're big on the gun thing, aren't you? Freud would say you're compensating. Have you ever met Freud? No? Comfy sofa." Joking words aside, he was deadly serious. It was nice to see that he really hadn't changed.

Rey was wearing gloves. Thinner than the ones she had worn on the Ood-Sphere, but they covered her fingers completely. She reached out to take his hand, surprised at her own boldness. His grip was tight and secure, sending tingly sensations back to her.

Pirate Four cried out and jerked his leg out of the water. "It's a leech," Amy exclaimed.

"Everyone out of the water!"

They scrambled onto the crates stacked up against the wall. The Doctor lifter her up by her arms and held her close to him. Rey shivered. The water was freezing and all the splashing had left her practically soaked. But the Doctor was warm, and even though it was a different Doctor than she was use to, it was comforting to be around him.

"It's bitten me, I'm bleeding." The black spot appeared on Pirate Four's hand.

"It's okay," the Doctor assured. "We're safe down here. No 'curse' is getting through these three solid inches of timber."

No sooner had the words finished coming out of his mouth that the Siren popped up out of the water.

"Ah. Hello again."

She immediately started singing. Rey reached over to help Amy hold Rory back, who seemed to have been affected even faster this time. With no one to restrain him, Pirate Four met the same fate as his former crewmate. They scrambled to get out of the hold, the Doctor bolting the door behind them.

"Safe," Amy repeated angrily.

"I have my good days and my bad days," he protested, using the sonic to examine the fallen pirate's hat.

Rey let out a little "Oh," prompting him to jolt and look her over with fear in his eyes. "I'm not hurt," she assured him. "It just that the sonic is different."

He examined her carefully for a moment. "Rey?" She nodded and tried her best to keep her face open. "Hello," he said again.

"Hi," she repeated.

"I'm the Doctor."

"I know." He grinned. She pretended not to notice the tightness at the corners of his mouth in exchange for him not making a big deal about how this was her first time meeting his him. It didn't stop her from feeling a flicker of bitterness and unease. Was the Rey that the others waiting for really her? At this rate, she might as well have just been a stand in for an older version of her.

Avery looked disgusted with them. "If you're done," he said loudly, eager to get the conversation back on topic. "How did the demon get in?"

"Right." The Doctor went back to sonicing the hat. "The bilge water—she's using water like a portal, a door. She can materialize through a single drip. We need to go somewhere with no water."

"Well, thank God we're not in the middle of the ocean."

Next to them, Rory and Amy bickered. Or rather, Rory, who was still feeling the lingering effects of the Siren's song, gushed about her, and Amy warned him against unfaithful thoughts.

"The magazine," Avery declared, the only one preoccupied with the Doctor's original plan.

"The armory? Where you store gunpowder," she added as it clicked.

"It's dry as a bone."

"Good. Let's go there."

The key to the magazine room was missing, but the door was unlocked when they tried it. To everyone's surprise, Avery's son had stolen away on the ship for who knew how long. He was in terrible shape, coughing and feverish. To make matters worse, the Siren had marked him as hers as well.

"There's nothing wrong with the boy," Avery reported. "He has no scars."

The Doctor nodded contemplatively and told them to disregard his previous theory. "He has his good days and his bad days," Amy mocked.

"It's not just blood. She's coming for all the sick and wounded. Like a hunter chooses the weakest animal."

"Or a nurse," Rey muttered under her breath. Sure, none of the ones she met at the hospital could disintegrate rowdy patients, but some of them were pretty rough.

When he was done complaining how second-rate human bodies were, the Doctor stood and declared the TARDIS could get them out safely. Avery, as he was prone to do, whipped out his pistol. "You're not the captain here, remember?"

Coughing, Toby pushed the lid off one of the barrels. It was full of water and the Siren wasted no time in trying to reach up through it. Rey, who was closest, immediately slammed the lid shut again.

"The water's dangerous," Avery warned his son. "That's how she gets through. One touch of her hand and you're a dead man!"

"We're all cursed if we stay aboard," Pirate Three cried.

"It's not a curse. Curse means game over. Curse means we're helpless. We are not helpless! Captain, what's our next move?"

In a surprisingly touching and out of character move, Avery draped his pendant around Toby's neck. He commanded the others to stay with Toby while he and the Doctor retrieved the TARDIS. Rey insisted on joining them. She hated just waiting around, and if a shark demon in a dress/siren-hunter-nurse was after them, she wanted to be working towards a solution.

"Sure you want to go," Amy asked nervously.

"We have to get Rory and Toby away," the Doctor told her. "She's out there now, licking her lips, boiling a saucepan, grating cheese."

"Okay, well remember, if you get an itch, don't scratch too hard."

"We've all got to go sometime."

Amy and Rory shared worried looks. The longer Rory was away from the Siren, the more of his senses he regained. The Doctor didn't notice the exchange, but Rey did. She felt simultaneously better and worse to know that there were secrets between them on all their parts. Was future-her in on any of them, or were there even more unspoken secrets that she just didn't have the necessary experience to be aware of?

"Don't worry," he assured them. "Not now. Not when Rey's only just met us."

The Ponds let the subject drop. Avery took over the lead as they left the magazine behind them. It was his ship, he knew it better than anyone—the uneven flooring, the cracks in the wood, the unsecured cargo. Aside from a close call with his hand narrowly missing an exposed nail, they managed to reach the TARDIS without any problems. Even from the outside, Rey could see something was different. The wood was a deeper color, and the door had gained a new sticker. Stepping inside only proved what she already knew.

She hadn't known there could've been an opposite of the coral design, but this was it. This was sleek metal and two stories and a glass floor. She looked around slowly, taking it all in. Albeit dimmer, the walls still had a golden glow to them. Wires still hung low from the ceiling like a hazard inspector's nightmare. The console itself had a few new patches and a new rearrangement, but was mostly the same.

"I guess it really is a new you." She didn't say it to be unkind, it was just fact. A new face, new sonic, new TARDIS—there were so many changes and she had just gotten used to the last Doctor she'd met. It made her head spin.

Rey was going to leave it at that, but he suddenly looked so heartbroken that she just couldn't. Her own chest ached, and something hard jumped up to her throat, like a stone of sadness that refused to be swallowed down. An old hurt, familiar but no less painful, hung in the air like an unspoken ghost.

"New doesn't mean bad." She crossed the distance between them. "The TARDIS is still a time machine. The sonic is still a screwdriver. You're still the Doctor." She reached out to take his hand again. This time it was limp until she tightened her grip. Prompted, the Doctor squeezed back like he was afraid of what would happen if he let go.

Her heart steadied, and the tightness in her throat loosened a bit. She forced herself to meet his eyes, hoping to convey how serious she was. He kept his gaze on her for a moment longer before closing his eyes and repeating the words he'd said when she first met him. "I promise, I won't let anything happen to you."

Bside them, Avery made a half-choked sound, reminding them of his presence. Rey tried to burry her embarrassment as they broke apart. The Doctor coughed and fixed his attention on Avery. Some people took in the TARDIS in stride, and some people lost it. You could never tell who fell into what category until they experienced her for themselves. She liked to think she'd taken it well, all things considered. Avery seemed to be hovering above the line between wonderment and acceptance.

"By all the…"

At least he hadn't pulled out his gun again.

"Let me stop you there. Bigger on the inside. Don't mind, do you, if we just skip to the end of that moment? Oh, and sorry I lied by the way, when I said yours was bigger. Kitchen that way. Choice of bathrooms—there, there, there." He pointed and turned back to the console.

Rey moved to get a better vantage. This too was different, but not as much as she seemed to be a limit to how much the TARDIS could change her controls. The way the Doctor moved about, so fast and all over it was hard to follow sometimes, she never knew if the configuration mattered. Or even if he was flying her properly.

"What's this do?" Avery ran his hands over one of the levers.

"That does very, very complicated. That does sophisticated, that does, whoa, amazing, and that does whizz bang far too technical to explain!"

"Wheel?"

"Atom accelerator," the Doctor corrected.

"It steers the thing."

"No… Sort of… Yes."

"Wheel. Telescope. Astrolabe. Compass." He pointed at each instrument as he named to less-technical counterpart. Avery was a natural, and Rey was very jealous. "A ship's a ship."

"This is how the professionals do it," the Doctor informed him before inputting a series of commands. "Have I taught you how to fly the TARDIS yet Rey?" Taught her? _Her_? Well, it was nice to know one day she'd get the hang of it.. "Ah! There'll be time for that later. For now…" He flipped a switch. The machinery groaned, twitched, then stopped. "It's stuck. Not responding."

"Becalmed?"

"Mm-hm. Apparently. That's new. You had to gloat, didn't you?"

"I'm not gloating," Avery protested

"I saw that look just now. Ha-ha his ship is rubbish." The Doctor checked the controls again. "It can't get a lock on the plane. The space we travel in, The… ocean. Sort of ocean but not water. The TARDIS can't see. It's sulking because it thinks the space doesn't exist. Without a plane to lock onto we're not going anywhere."

"I'm confused," Avery stated.

"It's a big club. We should get T-shirts," the Doctor offered.

"Our slogan can be 'we have our good days and our bad days.'" Avery had no qualms over laughing. The Doctor pouted at her, but really, what did he expect? It was too good an opportunity to pass.

An explosion swiftly killed the joking mood. He jerked Rey away from the console, using his body to shield her from the sparks. Her heart was trying it's best to find a way out of her chest, through her sternum if necessary. The sudden rumbling and shaking reminded her vividly of the quake in the hospital.

"Okay?"

She nodded and nudged the Doctor back to the controls. The sooner he figured out what was wrong, the sooner it would stop. He worked quickly and loudly. "Okay. She's had her little sulk. Now she's heading for the full-on screaming tantrum."

"Can you fix it," Avery asked.

"The parametric engines are jammed. Orthogonal vector's gone. I'm almost out of ideas."

"Almost?"

"Well, we could try stroking her and singing her a song."

"Will that help," Avery asked, desperate for any solution.

"Hard to say, never had before."

"A 'no,' then," Rey concluded sarcastically just as the rocking started.

"Argh! I've lost control of her, she's about to dematerialize. We could end up anywhere!"

"Doctor, I think now would be a good time to abandon ship." She grabbed his wrist and led the way back out. A loud, sparking explosion pushed them the rest of the way through the door and into the small closet the TARDIS was parked in. Emerald light enveloped the time machine just as it disappeared, leaving them stranded. Rey brushed herself off. "That went well."

"Okay, okay, okay. TARDIS runs off on its own. That's a bit of a new one. Bang goes our only hope of getting them out of here."

Out of options, they headed back to the magazine. One of the pirates, Mulligan, confronted them along the way. He was brandishing two pistols wildly, and had with him not only Avery's stolen treasure, but also the last of the supplies.

"We should go after him." The Doctor opened his mouth to suggest she head back first, but she gave him a hard look before he could even start.

Mulligan, expectantly, fired back at them when he discovered he was being pursued. They chased him back into the hold, kept back by a locked door. There was a yelp, a loud "Ow," and then singing. Green light shone through the cracks, and by the time the Doctor managed to unlock the door, Mulligan was gone.

Avery picked up the fallen crown. "No water in here. How did she take him? You said she uses water like a door. That's how she enters a room."

"I was wrong. Please ignore all my theories up to this point."

Rey huffed. "What, again," Avery complained.

"We're all in danger. The water's not how she's getting in. When we were down in the hold think what happened. You, me, Rey, Amy, Rory, leeches."

"She sprang from the water."

"But only when it stilled," Rey recalled. The Siren had only come out after they had all climbed onto the crates and stopped moving. "You said she only appeared when the ship was becalmed."

The Doctor nodded. "Still water: nature's mirror. Not water… reflection."

So the original siren legend was based on truth. They attacked ships filled with treasures because they were also filled with reflective surfaces. The Doctor shoved the crown in a sack. Avery's hand came up to grasp his pendant, paling as he remembered he'd given it to Toby. "We must warn them."

They rushed back to the magazine. As soon as the door was in sight, the Doctor called for Amy, urging her to get it open. He immediately ran to Toby and grabbed the necklace from him, breathing heavily on the surface to fog it up.

"The Doctor was wrong," Rey explained.

"Again," Amy and Rory asked in unison.

"It's not water, it's reflection."

Once he was satisfied the Siren wasn't going to be popping out any time soon, the Doctor ran back out the room. He went around the ship, using the butt of Mulligan's fallen gun to smash the glass window panes and mirror—anything that could serve as a way in for the Siren. The treasure and other reflective surfaces, even the cutlery, he commanded to be thrown overboard.

And then there was nothing left to do but wait. The TARDIS was gone, "towed," he complained, and until the wind decided to pick up again, there was no other way out. The term sitting ducks echoed in Rey's mind. She tried passing the time by getting to know Amy and Rory better. If they were going to be traveling together, she didn't want them to be strangers. She especially wanted to know more about them since they seemed to know so much about her.

They started with the basics: jobs. Of course, nothing was ever so simple in life. Rory was a nurse, and Rey felt her guard instantly go up. He seemed friendly enough, but she couldn't help it. Medical professionals just put her off. She spent too long in the hospital; nurses felt more like prison guards to her.

It was a little easier to relax around Amy. Rey liked her spunk, and she seemed to have lived a colorful life. She talked about her previous jobs, including a stint as whatever a kissogram was. Quietly, after Rory had fallen asleep, Amy admitted that she didn't know what she wanted to do. All she had ever dreamed about since she was a little girl was traveling with the Doctor.

"You should probably figure that out," Rey suggested bluntly. Amy's face fell, and she scrambled for something to say. "I don't mind traveling with you two, but don't you think something in the meanwhile would be nice? Look at Rory."

"Yeah, except it's easy for him. He always wanted to help people."

"What did you like doing back in… Leadworth?" Amy nodded. "What did you do there other than kissograming?"

Frustrated, Amy crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't know! Why do you think I became a kissogram? Back home it was like I was nothing more than a pretty face." She turned away, face red in shame.

Rey moved in front of Amy and made an effort to look her in the eye. Today was a day of eye contact, and she had only been here for a few hours. Normally, she avoided it when she could. Rey understood that it was a cultural thing, and maybe it was because she never had a parent scold her for bad manners, but meeting gazes made her feel a little uncomfortable. For Amy, though, she forced herself not to flinch. If Rey looked away, she'd take it as a rejection.

"Your face is pretty, but that's not all you are. You handle the Doctor like an expert, and you were pretty good with that sword." That earned her a small smile. "What do you like to do?"

Minutely, only noticeable because she was looking for it, Amy relaxed a little. "When I was a girl I had this book that had all these stories in them. I used to change them, put myself in them and save the day."

"If you like stories why not tell them yourself?"

"They were kid's stories," Amy argued.

"Then write for kids. Write about the adventures of Amazing Amy and how she always saves the day. It's not far from the truth from what I've seen. And God knows the Doctor needs saving constantly."

Amy giggled. To Rey's relief, she hadn't actually made things worse. "What about you?"

Rey paused. What about her? She supposed she was a little like Amy. Only, instead of the Doctor, all she had ever thought about was getting away. Now that she thought about it, all her plans were abstract. She wanted to see the ocean and mountains and sunsets and dawns. She wanted to run as far and as long as she could, stay out all night, taste more than bland gruel and smell more than disinfectant.

"Rey?"

Something was wrong. In the few seconds she had zoned out, something had shaken Amy. She looked pale and queasy, and she sounded scared. Her eyes were focused on the far wall like she was seeing something that wasn't there.

Rey placed her hand on her shoulder. "I'm right here. What's wrong?"

"I thought I saw… Nothing, never mind. Where do you think the Doctor is?"

It was a poor attempt to change the subject, but she let it slide. "Why don't you stay here with Rory and I'll go find him?"

Leaving Amy, she wandered around and eventually wound back up deck where it was much colder. While there was no wind, the humidity in the air made the chill sink into her bones. The stars and moon were beautiful. There was no need for a lantern or torch with them twinkling above head. Cast in the dim light, it felt like she was on a ghost ship.

Amy's reaction down in the magazine left her feeling unsettled and paranoid. Despite there being only a handful of people left on the ship, she couldn't shake the feeling she was being watched. Something caught her gaze as she walked past a row of broken window panes. For a moment, she saw a hundred unmistakable eyes gazing back on her. She'd know that harsh stare anywhere. The woman put in charge of her well-being hardly ever set foot inside from the doorway. She always looked from a distance, peeking in through the door and crushing Rey under her heavy gaze.

She took a shaking step back and fell. When she looked up again, there was only moonlight peeking through the jagged shards of glass still clinging to the window frame. It was all in her head. No one was looking at her, watching her, studying her. She was just being paranoid.

Embarrassed at her overreaction, she shoved that line of thought out of mind and concentrated on finding the Doctor. It took some time, but she finally tracked him to the captain's cabin. He was just standing in the middle of the room, completely silent. Thinking he was alone, for once he wasn't putting on a performance for the people around him. Rey was struck by the thought that he looked made of marble. No, not marble. Marble was too soft and easily scratched. He looked like he was carved from diamond and coal, crystalline and untouchable.

She thought she had been quiet, but something alerted him to her presence. The blocked off expression was wiped from his face, replaced by something younger and more open. "What is it," he asked worriedly. "Did something happen with Amy?"

She shook her head. "We just talked."

"She didn't spoil anything, did she?"

"No." He smiled, and she almost believed it if not for what she just saw. "Doctor…?"

He perked up, head tilted to the side and eyes earnest. "What is it? You can ask me anything, Rey."

Now was the perfect time to talk to him. She had putting it off for a while, not wanting to come off as crazy in front of the others. Or crazier. But she was at a loss for words. She felt thrown, tugged in a dozen directions, and afraid. What if it was all in her head, just like all the doctors always insisted?

"No, it's nothing."

"Do you hear something?" His expression shifted suddenly, focused on listening to something in the distance. "It feels like something's out there, staring straight at me." Rey gulped loudly and tried not to put too much thought in how his words echoed her own feelings just moments ago.

A thunderclap boomed before she could respond. For the first time since she arrived, the entire ship rocked. She and the Doctor exchanged excited looks, all talk of being spied on forgotten.

"Man the sails!"

They ran out of the room to gather the others. In no time at all the storm was upon them. It was pouring buckets, the sound of rain against the wooden deck a constant buzz that needed to be shouted over. Gusts of wind cut through the air, making it feel even colder.

"To the rigging, you dogs," Avery commanded. "Let go the sails. Avast ye!" She joined Amy and Rory in untying the ropes holding the mainsail back. The Doctor went for the wheel. "Put the bunt into the slack of claws!"

"I swear he's making half this stuff up," Amy complained.

"What we really need is some sort of phrase book," Rory suggested.

Avery ignored their grumbling. In one breath he ordered Toby to find him his compass and in another he yelled at them to work faster.

Toby rushed back with his arms full of Avery's coat. Halfway across the deck, he stumbled, and the golden crown Mulligan had tried to steal fell out. There was a moment of pause where they could do nothing but watch it roll across deck. Toby looked at his father, eyes full of hurt.

With a shower of green light, the Siren burst out of the crown. She fell back smoothly down to the deck, singing and with an arms stretched out to Toby. Avery warned against it, but, it was too late. Enthralled, Toby reached for her.

He disappeared with a scream.

Amy grabbed Rory to stop him from following suit. Alone, Rey struggled with the rope and prayed she wouldn't be blown away. The sail was free now, but it still needed to be tied down. If she let go, they wouldn't have a hope of securing it. Sneaking behind the Siren, the Doctor made a grab for the crown and tossed it overboard to banish her.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"You couldn't give up the gold, could you? That's why you turned pirate! Your commission, your wife, your son. Just how much is that treasure worth to you man," he yelled.

The ship lurched again and the main yardarm swung around. It caught Rory at his shoulders and knocked him into the stormy sea. Amy immediately ran to the side of the ship. "Rory! Rory! I can't see him. Rey, Doctor, I'm going in!"

"He drowning. You go in after him, you'll drown too!"

"The Siren can save him," Rey told her. Truth be told, she wasn't completely sure of what she was saying herself. What she did know was that they were missing something big, something obvious that they were too close and emotional to see. With the Siren, Rory had half a chance, which was better than no chance at all.

"What are you talking about," Amy demanded.

Before anyone could stop her or she could talk herself out of it, Rey made for the water barrel and lifted the lid. The Siren popped out, looking around almost confused for a moment until she urged her after Rory in the water.

"What did you do," Amy asked, horrified as the Siren dove after him.

"If he stays in there he'll die," the Doctor pointed out.

"She'll kill him," Amy argued.

"That thing isn't just some ravenous hunter! It's intelligent. We can reason with it. And maybe, just maybe, they're still alive somewhere. We have to follow."

He produced a blade and they took turns pricking their fingers. A black spot appeared on each of their palms, perfectly circular and painless. The area around it felt a little tight when she flexed, and it tingled a little like numbed nerves reawakening.

When she glanced back up, the Doctor was looking at her curiously. "Rey? Did you see something?"

What did he mean by see?

Before she could reply, the Siren's song started up again. None of them tried to fight when she appeared, they just reached for her inviting hand. There was a flash of light, the sensation of falling, and when she opened her eyes, she was lying on the floor of a spaceship.

"Where are we," Amy asked, cautiously looking around.

"We haven't moved," the Doctor told her. "We're in exactly the same place as before."

A large window took up much of the wall to the left, and through it they could see Avery's vessel. "We're on a ghost ship," he concluded.

"No, it's real. Spaceship trapped in a temporal rift."

"Same place, different plane," Rey mumbled.

The Doctor beamed. "Two planes, two worlds, two cars parked in the same space. There are lots of different universes nested under each other. Now and again they collide and you can step from one to the other."

Amy nodded. "Okay, I think I can understand."

"Good. Cos it's nothing like that at all. But if that helps."

"Your explanations get worse as you age, don't they," Rey asked. She ignored his pout and picked up a small piece of metal from the floor. It sailed directly through the glass smoothly, landing on the deck of the other ship. "The reflections became doorways," she clarified. "It explains the distress signal."

"See, Rey gets it. Ever look in a mirror and think you're seeing a whole other world? Well, this time it's not an illusion."

They explored the ship quickly, trying to find where Rory and the others would be kept. Singing could be heard from the distance, which confirmed that the Siren was on board. Just as well, there was no one left of Avery's ship for her. Behind one of the doors was the desiccated body of an alien. The remains looked vaguely dinosauric. Another body was at the controls on the bridge. Through the window was Avery's captain quarter.

"You were right about something staring at us the whole time," she noted. "How long as this ship been marooned here?"

"Long enough for the captain to have run out of grog," Avery reckoned.

"I don't understand. If this is the captain," Amy pointed to the body, "then what's the Siren?"

"Same as us," the Doctor guessed as he did scanned with the sonic. "A stowaway."

"She killed it?"

He checked the readings. "Human bacteria. A virus, from our planet. Airborne, traveling through the portal. That's what killed it. Didn't get its jabs." Leaning to get a better look, a light _squish_ sound when his hand landed on the panel had him flinching back, holding up his hand for them to see. "Urghhh! Look."

"What is it?" Amy moved to lean forward, but Rey shook her head. Her alarm bells had been ringing since the Doctor said "virus." She wasn't mysophobic, but some things were just gross, and anything that could go _squish_ in a pilot room where nothing should squish was likely going to fall under that category.

"Sneeze," the Doctor exclaimed. "Alien bogies." He shook his hand, trying to get it off. When that didn't work, he wiped it off on Amy's appropriated coat as he passed her on the way to the door.

The next room they entered reminded her sharply of the hospital. It was clearly the sickbay, with beds suspended from the ceiling. The unconscious figures lying in them were all intubated. Avery recognized the closest one of as from part of his crew. It took only a moment for him to find Toby and for Amy to find Rory. Even the TARDIS was there, and the Doctor ran to give her a big hug.

"We have to get them out of here." Avery moved to disconnect his son, but the Doctor stopped him.

He scanned the boy. "His fever's gone." He moved onto Rory next. "She's keeping him alive. His brain is still active but its cellular activity is suspended. It's not a curse." Stepping back, he took another look at Rory's black spot. "It's a tissue sample. Why get samples of people you are about to kill?"

Finally, it clicked.

"Help me get him up," Amy requested. The Doctor reached to remove the tube from Rory's throat, tripping an alarm.

The singing started getting closer. "She's coming," Rey warned.

They managed to duck out of sight just before the Siren arrived. She went straight to a now awake Rory. He tried jerking away from her, but her song slowly drained the fight from him.

"Anesthetic," the Doctor explained. Of course. Rey should have known. Hadn't she thought that Rory looked drugged that first time? "The music. The song. So she anesthetizes people and then puts their bodies in stasis."

The Siren moved over to Toby next, hand hovering above him. Avery, unable to stay hidden while his son might be in danger, leaped out with his gun at the ready. He ignored the Doctor's protest and shot at her. The bullet sailed through and she whipped around to face him, literally and completely red with anger. The Doctor ran to the other side of the room and tried to catch her attention to no effect. Only when he sneezed did she stopped her advance and turned to him.

A flame flickered between her hands. "Whoa. Fire! That's new. What does fire do? Burn? Yes. Destroy? What else?"

"It sterilizes," Rey told him. "You sneezed. This is a sickbay and you brought germs in."

He pulled out his handkerchief, blew his nose, and threw the cloth to the floor. The flame shot out at it, reducing the fabric to ashes in an instant. Still red, the Siren inched slowly to Amy and Rey, who had taken advantage of the distraction to go back to Rory.

"Amy, Rey, stop. Don't interfere. Don't touch him. Anesthetic, tissue sample, screen, sterile working conditions. Ignore all my previous theories!"

"Yeah, well, we stopped paying attention a while back," Amy told him.

"Rey! You said it before, at the very beginning. She's not a killer at all."

"She's a doctor." She touched Amy's arm, prompting her to, reluctantly, step back. The Siren's red faded back to green.

"This is an automated sickbay," the Doctor continued. "Its teleporting everyone on board. The crew are dead and so the sickbay has had nothing to do. It's been looking after humanity whilst it's been idle. A virtual doctor! Able to sterilize a whole room."

"And burn a person's face off," she muttered. This really wasn't improving her opinion of medical professionals.

"She's just an interface. Seeped through the join between the planes. Broadcast in our world. Protean circuitry means she can change her form and become a human doctor for humans. Oh, sister, you are good!"

Amy tried reaching for Rory again. Enraged, the Siren hissed viciously until she backed away. Stubbornly, Avery stayed by his son's side. "She won't let us take them."

"She's keeping them alive but she doesn't know how to heal them," the Doctor concluded.

"I'm his wife for God's safe! Why can't I touch him?"

"Try telling her," Rey suggested, eyeing the Siren carefully. The Doctor had said she was intelligent.

"Yes, tell her Amy. Show her your ring." He held her left hand out for her. "She may be virtual but she's intelligent. You can't do anything without her consent. Come on! Sophisticated girl like you, that must be somewhere in your core program."

"Look, he's very ill," Amy said, trying to reason with the Siren. "Okay? I just want to look after him. Why won't you let me near my husband?"

She held her hand out, and a ring of light appeared around it. "Consent form," the Doctor explained. "Sign it. Put your hand in the light. Rory's sick. You have to take full responsibility."

Amy did so without hesitation, and the Siren drifted off to look after the other sickbay inhabitants. The moment they turned off the power to the machines attached to Rory, he began to thrash. "He's still drowning, turn it back on," Rey urged.

Amy immediate flipped the switch. "What do we do? I can't just leave him here."

"He'll die if you take him out."

Amy stroked his face tenderly. "Rory? Wake up."

Now that the drugs were flushed out of his system, he was quick to obey. Bleary eyes blinked up. "Where am I?"

"You're in a hospital. If you leave you might die." Rey eyed the Doctor. Uncharacteristically succinct. That was how she knew things were bad.

"But if you don't you'll have to stay forever," Amy added miserably.

"You're saying that if I don't get up now…"

"You can never leave," she confirmed.

"The Siren will keep you safe," the Doctor added.

"And if I come with you?"

"You're currently drowning and on the verge of death," Rey told him.

"I'm a nurse," Rory suddenly declared. He only had eyes for Amy, clutching her hands just as tightly as she was holding onto him. "I can teach you how to save me."

Amy took a tiny step back. "Hold on."

"I was drowning. You just have to resuscitate me."

"Just?"

"You've seen them do it loads of times in films. CPR. The kiss of life."

"Rory, this isn't a film, okay. What if I do it wrong?"

"You won't." He sounded so sure. It was suddenly so clear how much he loved Amy. Moreover, he respected her. He believed in her more than anything. If Amy had half as much confidence in her own abilities that Rory did, Rey was sure things would work out.

"Okay, what if you don't come back to life? What if…?"

"I trust you," he said calmly.

"What about him?" She gestured to the Doctor. "I mean, why do I have to be the one? Why do I have to save you?"

"Because I know you'll never give up."

Rey stayed with the couple while the Doctor moved to talk to Avery. She listened in on Rory's explanation, filing the instructions away for later. You never knew when CPR might come in handy. And knowing the Doctor, sooner or later it would. A few beds away, Avery volunteered to stay aboard. Toby's condition was terminal, and unlike Rory he didn't stand a chance. Disconnecting him from the life support would be a death sentence.

"I know you can do this. Of course, if you muck it up I'm going to be really cross. And dead."

"I'll see you in a minute," Amy told him. She looked to Rey for reassurance before unhooking Rory. Together, the three of them carried him to the TARDIS as he gasped for air. They set him down just inside, getting him in the proper position so Amy could get to work.

"Come on," the Doctor urged. His hands were balled into tight fists by his side. Rey wished she could somehow give him some measure of comfort, but she knew the only thing that could reassure him now was Rory opening his eyes. "Come on Rory. Not here. Not this way. Not today."

"He trusted me," Amy cried as she pounded on his chest. "He trusted me to save him."

"You still can," Rey urged her. "You can do this. Amazing Amy, remember? Always saving the day."

"Please," she begged as she pressed harder. "Please, please wake up, wake up, wake up." Amy sobbed as she sat back, Rory still and pale on the floor. Just when they were about to lose all hope, he jerked and began coughing up water.

The Doctor threw his arms around Rey in joy. She allowed the hug, leaning in slightly and hiding her smile in his chest. Amy was sobbing in Rory's arms as he whispered reassurances in her ear.

When the celebration was over Amy and Rory retreated to their room. The Doctor fiddled with the TARDIS monitor, bidding them goodnight almost absentmindedly. He had his worried look on. It was funny, actually, how a different face could make the same expression.

"What's wrong?" She had noticed a scan running in the background on the monitor earlier, but she hadn't paid attention to what it was for, distracted by the sulking TARDIS.

"Spoilers." He made a face when he said it, like the word left a nasty taste in his mouth. "Speaking of, have I spoken to you about those yet?"

She shook her head. "You talked about how time was wibbly, could be rewritten, and wasn't the boss of you, but then you went off on a tangent and got distracted." He grinned sheepishly at her. "I can figure it out. Since our timelines aren't in order, one of us might have foreknowledge. You're saying we shouldn't spoil things for one another?"

"Yeah. But it's more you keeping them from me. You're better with secrets?" He pouted.

"Am I?"

They drifted closer as they talked. Finally, Rey understood all those books that described characters as magnetic. The pull was natural, unnoticeable until it was brought to attention or she tried to fight it. As easy as breathing, she went along with the Doctor, and it scared her. He was like the ocean, and it would be so easy to lose herself in the current.

With a vicious yank, she undid her bun and combed her fingers through her hair to try and fight the creases. She needed something to do with her hands and a reason to look away from him. Rey wasn't going to lose. She wasn't going to get caught in his undertow or magnetic field or whatever metaphor that applied. She was going to keep herself and move forwards.

A hand reached out to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. She jolted, gaze following it back to him. Just like that, the Doctor had launched his counter, so easily slipping past her defenses. "What is it?"

"You're so young," he said mysteriously.

What did her age matter? "I'm eighteen."

"Exactly my point." He looked down at his feet, shoulders slumping. "I'm an old man, Rey. Very old. I've seen and had more than my fair share of terrible things. And amazing things. Brilliant things."

" _We've all got to go sometime_ ," he had said to Amy, and he didn't sound defeated, but he did sound resigned. The Doctor didn't have an active death wish, but maybe… maybe he was tired. Time and space were so vast, and there were only so many terrible things a person could take.

"Let's exchange secrets," she suddenly proposed, wanting to banish that exhausted expression from his face. It didn't belong there, and not just because this Doctor looked so young.

"What?"

"This is my first time meeting this you," she explained. "And as you keep reminding me, I'm new at this. I don't know you very well. So let's exchange secrets to get to know each other better."

Now that she explained it she felt foolish. It was a child's idea, immature and naive. The Doctor had an incomprehensible look on his face and she panicked, opening her mouth to take it back. Then, of all things, he chuckled.

"Alright. I love knowing secrets."

She breathed a silent sigh of relief. Part of her wondered if she was just being humored, and another part of her felt… grateful. Like the Doctor wasn't just pulling her along, he was working to meet her halfway.

"I'll go first," she offered. This wasn't really a secret, but she hadn't ever told anyone it either. "I don't like doctors." His face fell, aghast. It was almost comical, and she struggled not to laugh. "But I like you."

Rapidly, he flushed, darker and darker. It spread down the collar of his shirt to the tips of his ears. Rey hadn't known it was physically possible to turn that red, but maybe Time Lords were extra capable. Embarrassed by her frank words, for once it was him ducking her gaze.

Never was Rey so glad that she was incapable of blushing. She was embarrassed by her own boldness too. Thank god Amy and Rory were no longer around, or she might've jumped just to get away.

After a while, she started getting antsy. Just standing there in silence felt so awkward. Fair was fair—they had an agreement, and it was his turn to spill. No way was she leaving without something out of him in return. Not after that.

She fidgeted, nudging him lightly, to remind him why she'd said that in the first place. The Doctor mumbled something incomprehensible to the floor.

"Huh?" She leaned in closer.

Without any warning, his hands came up to her shoulders. The tips of his ears were still flushed, and he was still wound so tightly that it was clear he wasn't completely passed the embarrassment. She startled at the abrupt turn of events, blinking incomprehensibly at his now much less red face. "That was hardly fair, Rey, saying it so out of the blue like that."

"I never claimed to play fair." No, that wasn't what she meant to say. What was it about the Doctor that made her so flustered that she just blurted thing out? "It's your turn."

He cleared his throat. "Right, my turn. My secret to tell. Well get ready, cos this is a good one, the secret to ends all secrets."

As he spoke, his voice started getting quieter and quieter. No, it wasn't his voice, it was her hearing. It was starting to go out, which meant that she was getting ready to jump.

He mouthed something, and all she heard was a half incomprehensible whisper. "-s—- — —-nd —you...

"Wait," she tried to say, but she was unsure if what came out was actually the word, or if it was just a jumble of sounds. His hands were still on her shoulders, but she could no longer feel the weight nor the warmth of them. Vision tunneling, she could still make out the Doctor's face. A bittersweet smile, more bitter than sweet, pulled at his lips.

Rey reached up, but she couldn't even tell if she succeeded in touching him. No. She didn't want to leave him like this. Not in the middle of a conversation, not when he was looking like that. But she had no idea how to stop or how to stay.

Forcing her unfeeling tongue to work, she could only hope that the words came out at least somewhat intelligibly. Four words were hardly enough to make a difference, but she could try.

"I'll see you soon."


	3. The Unicorn and the Wasp

**AKA in which Life is like a Mystery... or something. Thanks again to everyone bothering to read this story. Enjoy!**

* * *

The most curious thing about Rey's room in the TARDIS was the window. Not the room's existence; despite what she had been led to believe that first adventure, it wasn't always go-go-go twenty-four/seven. Somewhere to rest and recharge was only practical, and it was thoughtful of the TARDIS to provide her with her own place. Though to be honest, the room itself was a pretty curious thing.

For instance, some of the more personal items of the decor she hadn't accumulated yet. She attributed their presence to the fact that they were staying in a time machine. Still, they were clearly her things, and it was clearly her room. She could see herself in every choice, from the sky blue color of the walls to the double-wide bookshelf. The clothes in the dresser were all things she would wear, and while many of the souvenirs she'd gotten—or would eventually pick up—were curious, there was nothing she outright rejected as "not her." Obviously, she had decorated the room some time in her future, and the TARDIS had simply brought it back to her now.

When everything was considered, it all made sense. Thus, Rey was left with the window to occupy her interest. Perfectly circular and with a diameter of two and a half meters, it took up most of the wall to the right of the bed. It was actually set into the wall a bit, and the bottom was padded with pillows so she could sit or lie as she pleased. A light at the top indicated that she probably did so often, likely with a book in hand.

The second she saw it, all Rey could think was _yes_. This was the perfect window. No other could compare, and her life would be emptier if something ever were to happen to it.

What made it curious wasn't the size, shape, or perfection, but the view. Just that she had a view in and of itself was odd. Since the TARDIS's interior and exterior didn't match, it was difficult to find a wall where the other side was actually outside. She could also move her rooms around, to make things more confusing. Still, Rey was fairly sure that the other side of her bedroom wall wasn't outside. She was even surer that the view she had wasn't the same view from outside the TARDIS.

An ocean waited for her on the other side of the window. Sometimes the water was the most vibrant of blues, sometimes it was sea green, and sometimes it was inky black. Traffic consisted mostly of schools of fish and other aquatic animals, some of which she was almost positive weren't from Earth. A time or two she saw the flicker of a long fin, a humanoid arm, or long, fine hair.

Curious.

The oddity didn't make her like the window any less. In fact, if anything, Rey loved it more for its quirks. Still, as it was prone to do, the curiosity itched. Was it a real ocean, held back only by a thin pane, or was it just a projection? She didn't hear any seaside sounds, smell any salt in the air, or feel like the room was rocking. Maybe it was a metaphor? The TARDIS was technically a spaceship as well as a time machine. So far, she didn't have any urge to break the glass and find out, but she might ask the Doctor about it soon.

Not now. Now, she was preoccupied with brainstorming. The Doctor had told her to pick a person, any person, in all of history. She was back with his previous regeneration this time. Donna was there too, strangely relieved when Rey landed.

"Anyone?"

"Anyone," he confirmed.

That left her with so many options. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Nikola Tesla, Rosalind Franklin, Vincent van Gogh. Her head spun with possibilities.

Rey thought back to her personal "library" back in the hospital. Truthfully, it was little more than a small handful of books and a few clippings shoved in the bottom drawer of her little bedside table. She had a feeling that her doctor knew she was squirreling materials away but thought they were harmless enough that he let her keep them. Her stash had been found and confiscated a number of times in the past, but she always tried again.

It probably said something about futility and stubbornness.

Rey walked around the TARDIS console, letting her fingers drift along the controls. She knew exactly who she wanted to see. "Agatha Christie."

"Agatha Christie?"

She nodded. _The Thirteen_ _Problems_ was the first book she had ever kept. The cover had been torn away, and it sat squished between the blue journal and _On the Origin of Species_. It was long gone now, but she'd had it memorized since she was seven.

The Doctor grinned. "Alright then. Agatha Christie." He flipped a lever definitively.

The TARDIS touched down a few minutes later in the middle of a large garden on a beautiful day. "Oh, smell that air. Grass and lemonade and a little bit of mint. Just a hint of mint, must be the 1920s."

"You can tell what year it is just by smelling," Donna asked.

"Oh yeah?"

"Or he can see the car over there," Rey pointed out. Like the nosy people they were, the three decided to follow it and see what was going on. Beneath an awning, Professor Peach exchanged a few pleasantries with Reverend Golighty before rushing up to the manor's library. He insisted on being alone, leaving the garden party behind.

"Never mind Planet Zog. A party in the 1920s—that's more like it," Donna decided.

"The trouble is we haven't been invited." The Doctor reached into his coat pocket only to frown and pat his torso in confusion. Rey held up the psychic paper with a twitch of her lips. Pick pocketing the Doctor was amusing. A little tricky since his pockets were bigger on the inside, but the challenge just made success that much more satisfying.

Donna insisted that they dress for the occasion. While the Doctor remained in his brown pinstriped suit, she and Rey had fun rummaging around the wardrobe. Quite frankly, it was absolutely ridiculous in there. The clothes were more like costumes, and there seemed to be no end to them. Finally, Rey settled on a blue spring dress with a pale cardigan and matching gloves. It was long enough that she wasn't uncomfortable, and the tassels made it fun to twist around. She felt rather catlike in her fixation with them.

"What do you think?"

The Doctor grinned and offered an arm to the both of them like a gentleman, leading them to join the party. Tables were now set up on the garden lawn, and the household staff was finishing up with the refreshments. As soon as they approached a footman attended to them straight away, asking for drink orders.

"May I introduce Lady Clemency Eddison," Greeves, the head butler, said when they were finished.

An older, petite woman approached. "Lady Eddison!" The Doctor held his hand out for hers enthusiastically.

She eyed him warily. "Excuse me, but who exactly might you be… and what are you doing here?"

"I'm the Doctor and this is Miss Rey." She thanked her stars that the Doctor hadn't used her full name. She didn't hate it, per say, but it never felt right. Her first name was a little peculiar, and she had known someone who went by a shortened version of her middle name, so Rey it was, short and simple. "And Miss Donna Noble… of the Chiswick Nobles."

"Good afternoon."

Donna curtseyed and, in a terribly fake posh accent, added "Topping day, what? Spiffing! Top hole!"

"No, no, no, no, no," the Doctor whispered. "Don't do that. Don't."

"Hello," Rey said simply.

Lady Eddison looked them all over once more, not as discrete in her judgments as she thought she was being. Rey took an instant dislike to her.

"We were thrilled to receive your invitation, my lady. We met at the ambassador's reception."

Not wanting to admit she didn't remember them, she played along. "Doctor, how could I forget you? But one must be sure with the Unicorn on the loose."

"A unicorn?" He perked up. "Brilliant. Where?"

She had meant, of course, the jewel thief who went by the moniker, not the actual creature. Or maybe not so mythical. The Doctor had taken Rey to a planet ruled by intelligent horned equestrians that might as well have called themselves unicorns. They were completely friendly until you managed to offend one, and then it was all out war.

"He's just struck again," Lady Eddison informed them a little too gleefully. "Snatched Lady Babbington's pearls right from under her nose."

"Funny place to wear pearls," Donna commented.

"May I announce the Colonel Hugh Curbishley, the Honorable Roger Curbishley." As Greeves spoke, a younger dark haired man pushed his rather rotund father, who sat in a wheelchair, towards them. Lady Eddison further introduced them as her son and husband.

"Forgive me for not rising," the Colonel said. "Never been the same since the flu epidemic back in '18."

"My word," Roger exclaimed, attention instantly captured by Donna. "You are a super lady!"

"Oh! I like the cut of your jib. Chin-chin."

"I'm the Doctor." He shook Roger's hand. "This is Rey." She stayed silent as the rest exchanged pleasantries. Davenport, the footman, soon returned with their drinks, along with Roger's unordered glass. The two shared a heated look. Like his mother, he wasn't as discrete as he thought he was. Rey wondered if conspicuity ran in the family.

"How come she's an Eddison but her husband and son are Curbishleys," asked Donna.

"The Eddison title descends through her," the Doctor explained. "One day, Roger will be a lord."

The other guests quickly began filing in one by one. Robina Redmond and Reverend Arnold Golightly had both been already announced by Greeves. Lady Eddison took it upon herself to introduce the guest of honor. Everyone applauded as Agatha Christie strode across the lawn with a purposeful grace.

"Oh, no. Please don't. Thank you, Lady Eddison. Honestly, there's no need." She stuck her hand out to shake Donna's while giving out her name.

"What about her?" Rey gave Donna a slight nudge, reminding her of why they were there in the first place.

"That's me," Agatha replied, amused.

"No! You're kidding!"

"Agatha Christie," the Doctor declared, shaking her hand. "I was just thinking about you the other day. I said, 'I bet she's brilliant.' I'm the Doctor, this is Rey, and this is Donna. Oh, I love your stuff! What a mind! You fool me every time. Well, almost every time. Well, once or twice. Well… once. But it was a good once."

Rey rolled her eyes. "Ignore him." Agatha had a firm handshake. "He often forgets to stop. It's lovely to meet you."

"You make a rather unusual couple."

"Oh, no, no, no, no. We're not married."

"We're not a couple," Donna stressed. For some reason, it wasn't an uncommon conclusion people drew about them. Every time Rey had been with them so far, _someone_ made the assumption Donna and the Doctor were romantically linked.

"Obviously not—no wedding ring."

"Oh… you don't miss a trick," the Doctor praised.

"And I'd stay that way if I were you." Agatha leveled her an even stare. "The thrill is in the chase, never in the capture."

"Mrs. Christie, I'm so glad you could come," Lady Eddison said. "I'm one of your greatest followers. I've read all six of your books. Uh, is, uh, Mr. Christie not joining us?"

"Is he needed? Can't a woman make her own way in the world?"

"Don't give my wife ideas," the Colonel joked.

"Mrs. Christie, I have a question." Roger stepped up to them, adding to their slowly growing circle. "Why a Belgian detective?"

"Excuse me, Colonel." The Doctor took the newspaper sitting in his lap. While the other guests wondered after Professor Peach, he called Rey's and Donna's attention to the date.

"What about it?"

"It's the day Agatha Christie disappeared," Rey answered. "She'd just found out her husband was having an affair."

"You'd never think to look at her smiling away," Donna commented

"Well, she's British and moneyed," the Doctor rationalized. "That's what they do—they carry on."

"Or," Rey offered, "she's decided not to define herself by a man." Donna grinned, and the Doctor smiled at her fondly. She cleared her throat and tried to ignore the warmth grown under her collar. "No one knows what happened today. She just vanished. They'll find her car by the lake tomorrow morning. Ten days later she'll turn up at a hotel in Harrogate claiming she can't remember anything about the last few days. It's a mystery."

"But whatever it was…" The Doctor began.

"It's about to happen," Donna finished.

"Right here and now." Rey couldn't remember the last time she was this excited. Scratch that, she could. Every adventure with the Doctor was filled with excitement. She just couldn't remember the last time she had felt this excited this often. In a small voice, she thanked him. "I love my present."

He practically preened.

"Present," Donna asked.

"Birthday present."

"It's your birthday?!"

Technically, her birthday was the day of the earthquake. Between the jumping and time traveling, however, she hadn't had a chance to celebrate it. Not that she had a celebration planned anyway. How the Doctor found out, she didn't know. Maybe a future her told a past him or something.

"A little while ago. Or in eighty-five years."

"But I haven't got you present." She sounded so disappointed, much to Rey's confusion.

"I don't need a present from you, Donna. Just traveling together is enough."

"The Doctor's given you a present," she countered.

"He insisted." Loudly. And when Rey still hesitated, he declared he would do so regardless if she agreed or not. "I always celebrate birthdays," he'd claimed. "Especially yours." She didn't quite understand the sentiment, or why he singled her out, but it was easier just to nod.

Donna didn't look very reassured, but Miss Chandrakala, Lady Eddison's personal maid, ran out of the house yelling about a murder in the library and effectively distracted her. The Doctor and Rey took off in tandem, racing together to the scene of the crime. They arrived first, followed shortly by Donna and Agatha. By the times Greeves entered, he was already kneeling by the body. Rey made a cursory examination of the room, trying to commit it to memory.

"Bashed on the back of the head. Blunt instrument."

"His watch broke when he fell." She craned her neck to read it properly. "Time of death is roughly 4:15."

"Bit of pipe. Call me Hercule Poirot but I reckon that's blunt enough," Donna added.

The Doctor examined the papers on the desk. "Nothing worth killing for in that lot, dry as dust."

"Hold on, the body in the library," Donna asked the two of them quietly. "I mean, Professor Peach, in the library, with a lead piping?"

They heard Lady Eddison and the Colonel demand to see the scene from the doorway. The other guests were right behind their hosts. Agatha suggested someone call the police, and that was when the Doctor did his thing. He whipped out the psychic paper. "You don't have to. Chief Investigator Smith from Scotland Yard, known as the Doctor. Miss Rey and Miss Noble are the plucky young girls who help me out."

"I say," Lady Eddison gasped.

"Mrs. Christie was right. Go into the sitting room. I will question each of you in turn."

"Come along," Agatha prompted. "Do as the Doctor says. Keep the room undisturbed." They scurried out, leaving the trio in the library.

"'The plucky young girls who help me out,'" Donna quoted.

"There were no policewomen in 1926," the Doctor defended from his position stretched out on the floor. He was looking for more clues.

"Marie Owens is believed to be the first woman given the power of arrest, in 1891," Rey supplied offhandedly. "Edith Smith was the first in England, 1915." When she glanced back up, both the others were blinking owlishly at her. "I read it in a book. The hospital gets boring."

Donna opened her mouth to say something, paused, then thought better of it. "Why don't we phone the real police," she asked instead.

"The last thing we want is PC Plod sticking his nose in. Especially…" The Doctor used a pen to pull something from a crack in the floor, "now that I've found this. Morphis residue."

"Morphis? Doesn't sound very 1926."

"Gets left behind when certain species genetically re-encode."

"The murderer is an alien," Rey concluded. "Which means one of the guests is one. That aside—a murder, a mystery, and Agatha Christie…"

He sniffed the residue. "So? Happens to me all the time."

"Isn't that a bit weird," Donna asked. "Agatha Christie didn't walk around surrounded by murders. Not really. That's like meeting Charles Dickens and he's surrounded by ghosts. At Christmas."

"Well—"

"Oh, come on. It's not like we could drive across country and find Enid Blyton having tea with Noddy. Could we? Noddy's not real, is he? Tell me there's no Noddy."

"There's no Noddy," he confirmed while Rey did a final sweep of the room.

"You should ask Agatha about the paper in the fireplace," she commented as they walked out. The white scrap of paper was gone now, and only people near the burnt out cinders had been Donna and Agatha.

The Doctor beamed proudly at her. "Next thing you'll be telling me it's like Murder on the Orient Express and they all did it," Donna continued.

"Murder on the Orient Express," Agatha repeated questioningly.

"Oh yeah. One of your best."

"But not yet," Rey mumbled. "You're eight years early."

Agatha hummed. "Marvelous idea, though."

"Yeah, tell you what—copyright: Donna Noble, yeah?"

"Anyway," the Doctor said, trying to move the conversation along. "Agatha and I will question suspects. Rey and Donna, you search the bedrooms, look for clues. And more residue." He pulled out a large magnifying glass from his pocket. "You'll need this."

"Is that for real," Donna deadpanned.

"Go on. You two are ever so plucky."

Rey took the magnifying glass. "I prefer intrepid," she offered before heading upstairs with Donna. They searched the rooms one by one until they came across a locked door at the end of the corridor.

Out of nowhere, Greeves materialized behind them. "You won't find anything in there."

Donna jumped. "Oh! How come it's locked?"

"Lady Eddison commands it so."

"If nothing's inside you won't mind us having a look then," Rey challenged. "Unlock it."

"Why's it locked in the first place," Donna wondered while Greeves reluctantly complied.

"Many years ago, when my father was butler to the family, Lady Eddison returned from India with malaria. She locked herself in this room for six months until she recovered. Since then, this room has remained… undisturbed."

That was odd. Lady Eddison was the type who would either flaunt having survived and recovered from her illness, or she'd destroy all evidence and never speak of it again. A sealed room, untouched and unchanged, was uncharacteristically sentimental.

The door creaked as it opened. Despite the appearance of an ordinary, albeit very dusty, bedroom, Rey felt like she was standing in front of a crime scene. No, not a crime scene, a memorial. Traces of a life lingered, evidenced by the bed and sparse but practical furniture. A teddy bear sat upon the mattress like an offering, worn around the middle from being hugged tightly and often.

She didn't like the way this was headed.

"There's nothing in here," Greeves observed, trying to rush them out.

"How long has it been empty," she asked.

"Forty years."

"Why would she seal it off? All right, we need to investigate. You just… butle off." Donna shooed Greeves away and shut the door behind him. Reminded of her own doll, Rey picked up the stuffed toy. She hoped it had survived the earthquake intact. It was an old thing, worn and raggedy, but even after fourteen years she couldn't let it go.

A buzzing noise in the distance was steadily moving closer until it was all she could hear. Something instinctively inside of Rey rebelled at the sound. The hair on Rey's arms all stood on end. She felt like flinching or flailing or hiding away beneath her sheets.

Oblivious to her visceral reaction, Donna made her way to the windows. Thick, heavy curtains flanked them. "1926, they've still got bees. Oh, what a noise! Alright busy bee, I'll let you out. Hold on. I shall find you with _my amazing powers of detection_." She spoke the last few words in a terrible Belgium accent.

Rey straightened up, refusing to be done in by simple noise. She handed Donna the magnifying glass and threw the drapes open only to bite back a curse. Hovering outside the window was the biggest wasp she had ever seen by far. It was easily over two meters tall, angry and ready to lash out.

"That's impossible," Donna exclaimed, dropping the magnifying glass in shock.

"I think we found our morphic alien," Rey said without taking her eyes off it.

Using its stinger, the wasp broke through the window glass. While Donna yelled for the Doctor, Rey grabbed the fallen magnifying glass. Wrestling her nerves down, she forced herself closer until she was in the perfect position to catch the sunlight with the lens.

A terrible burning smell hit her nose so visceral that it was like a punch to the face. The wasp screeched in pain, flailing as much as a wasp could flail while still in midair. Pulling her by the arm, Donna dragged Rey back out into the hall, slamming the door behind them just in time for it to catch the wasp's stinger. The wood gave way to the pointed end, but there wasn't enough force behind it to push the stinger all the way through.

The Doctor and Agatha came rushing up the stairs. "There is a giant wasp," Donna gasped.

"What do you mean, giant wasp?" He looked to Rey for clarification but she just shook her head."Giant wasp" pretty much summed it up. Between the pounding of her heart and the buzzing still crackling in her ears, she couldn't think about anything else.

"Rey?" The Doctor was careful not to touch her, ignoring Donna's and Agatha's bickering over the size of the insect. "Still with me? Do you need anything? Water? A blanket? Somewhere nice and quiet and dark to lie down?"

"I'm fine," she tried to say, only for her voice to come out as a croak. The Doctor's frown deepened. Clearing her throat, she pushed past the thick and heavy feel of her tongue and repeated herself more clearly. "Sorry, but I'm fine."

"You sure?"

She took a deep breath to center herself. This was England, 1926, a party with Agatha Christie. "Yes."

"Look at its sting," Donna exclaimed, and they all refocused their attention back on the matter at hand.

The wasp had flown off by the time the group returned to the room. Agatha studied the broken-off stinger with fascination. She reached out to touch it. "I wouldn't," Rey advised, noting the viscous fluid clinging to it. It could have been venomous.

"Let me." The Doctor pulled out a vial from his pocket. Using another pen, he spooned a sample of the goop into in before seating the top with a stopper. "Giant wasp… Well, there are tonnes of amorphous insectivorous lifeforms but… none in this galactic vector."

"I think I understood some of those words," Agatha admitted. "Enough to know that you're completely potty."

"Lost its sting, though," Donna pointed out. "That makes it defenseless."

"Unless it's capable of growing another one," Rey said.

The Doctor nodded. "Creature this size? Gotta be."

Agatha shook her head. "Uh, can we return to sanity? There are no such things as giant wasps."

"Exactly! So the question is: what's it doing here?"

A loud scream interrupted their trek back downstairs. Moments later, they found Miss Chandrakala laying in the drive, a fallen gargoyle crushing her. She had just enough life in her to leave them with a cryptic message before she died. "The poor, little child."

The buzzing was back. As they ran, Rey steeled herself. It was just an insect. Granted, it was a giant insect, but she was the one chasing it this time, not the other way around. As if reading her thoughts, Donna made a comment on exactly that. Agatha kept insisting it was a trick, even with it clearly in her sights.

The wasp hovered at the top of the stairs. "Oh, but you are wonderful," the Doctor exclaimed. She grimaced and tried to focus on her own heartbeat, her breathing, the hands of the grandfather clock near them—anything but the buzzing.

 _Tick. Tick. Tick._

Predictably, it didn't react well to being called out. The wasp turned and rushed at them. Its stinger already re-grown, and now it was gleaming with venom. They ducked just in time for it to pass over their heads. Donna held the magnifying glass up threatening. "Oi! Flyboy!"

Remembering the pain, the wasp retreated. "Don't let it get away," the Doctor ordered. "Quick, before it reverts to human form!" They chased it into an upstairs hallway. "Where are you? Come on! There's nowhere to run—show yourself!" The doors in the corridor opened at once. Every single guest stepped out, looking at them strangely. "Oh… that's just cheating," he complained.

Everyone ended up collecting in the sitting room. Lady Eddison was in tears when she heard what happened to Miss Chandrakala. "My faithful companion," she wailed. "This is terrible!"

"Excuse me, my lady. She was on her way to tell you something," Davenport reported.

"She never found me. She had an appointment with death instead!"

Part of it was for show, but beneath Lady Eddison's theatrics was genuine despair. "She said 'the poor little child' before she died. Does that mean anything to anyone?"

"No children in this house for years. Highly unlikely there will be." The Colonel looked at his son disapprovingly.

"Mrs. Christie, you must have twigged something. You've written simply the best detective stories," Lady Eddison insisted.

"Tell us… what would Poirot do," Reverend Golighty asked.

"Heaven's sake! Card on the table, woman! You should be helping us," Colonel Curbishley demanded.

"But—I'm merely a writer."

"But surely you can crack it," Robina said. "These events, they're exactly like one of our plots."

Donna nodded along. "That's what I've been saying. Agatha, that's got to mean something."

"But what? I've no answers. None. I'm sorry, but I've failed. If anyone can help us, it's the Doctor, not me." Looking a bit strung out, Agatha quickly excused herself from the room, away from everyone's demands. The group broke apart again, no one happy and everyone with their own share of questions.

Later, when she and Donna came to Rey and the Doctor with what they found in the bushes outside, Agatha looked much better. Rey didn't know what the two girls talked about, but she hoped it helped. Things were tense enough with murders and suspicions flying around. No one needed to be ganged up on and have the crimes magically figured out demanded on them.

Inside the case was a range of tools. Rey recognized the ones for lock picking, but some of the others were a mystery to her. Professional criminal often preferred to have their own set, customized for their various needs. "This is something a thief would have."

"The Unicorn," Agatha quickly concluded. "He's here!"

"The Unicorn and the Wasp," the Doctor mused.

Greeves approached them with a tray of drinks. He walked in a practiced manner: soft steps, little to no rustling of his clothes, even quiet breathing. It was like being served by an invisible man. Or a ghost.

"What about the science stuff," Donna asked. "What did you find?"

"Hm, Vespiform sting. Vespiforms have got hives in the Silifax Galaxy. For some reason, this one's behaving like a character in one of your books." The Doctor took a sip of his drink.

"Come on, Agatha. What would Miss Marple do," Donna prompted. "She'd've overheard something vital by now because the murderer thinks she's just a harmless old lady."

"Clever idea. Miss Marple—who writes those?"

"December, 1927," Rey whispered.

"Um, copyright: Donna Noble. Add it to the list."

"Rey…" The Doctor's voice came out strangely. Too throaty and strangled. "Something's inhibiting my enzymes." He jerked forwards suddenly and cried out in pain. She and Donna rushed to his side as he began convulsing. "I've been poisoned!"

"How do we help you," she asked quickly. He couldn't die like this. Not this easily, and not this soon.

Agatha sniffed his drink. "Bitter almonds—it's cyanide. Sparkling cyanide!"

The Doctor ran to the kitchen with the three girls hot on his trail. He staggered and grabbed Davenport by the footman's lapels, partly to steady himself and partly to get the man's full attention. "Ginger beer."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I need ginger beer." He ran to the shelves and practically knocked half of it over with his jerky movement. A few mouthfuls of the stuff went down his throat. The rest of the jug he poured over his head.

"This gentleman's gone mad!"

"I'm an expert in poisons" Agatha insisted. "It's fatal! There's no cure!"

"Not for me! I can stimulate the inhibited enzymes into reversal. Protein! I need protein!"

Rey searched the kitchen. "Walnuts," Donna declared upon finding a bag full of them in the pantry.

"Brilliant!" He shoved his mouth full of them and tried to give the next instruction.

"We can't understand you," Donna cried. He shook one of his hands. "How many words? One. One word. Shake? Milk? Shake? Milk? Milk! No, not milk. Um, shake, shake, shake—cocktail shaker! What do you want, a Harvey Wallbanger?"

He swallowed. "Harvey Wallbanger?"

"Well I don't know!"

"How is Harvey Wallbander one word?"

"Doctor," Rey insisted.

"Salt! I was miming salt! Salt I need something salty!"

Donna shoved a bag at him. "What about this?"

"What is it?"

"It's salt."

"That's too salty!"

"Here!" Rey thrust a jar at him. He downed the contents in one go.

"What's that," Donna asked.

She wrinkled her nose. "Anchovies."

Still chewing, the Doctor tried gesturing again. He held his hands up with his palms out. "What is it? What else? It's a song. 'Mammy.' I don't know, 'Camptown Races?'"

"'Camptown Races'," he echoed incredulously.

"Well, alright then. 'Towering Inferno.'"

"It's a shock! Look! Shock! I need a shock!"

Donna huffed. "Alright then, big shock coming up."

She grabbed Rey's shoulders and pushed her at the Doctor. Their lips met in a, quite honestly, disgusting and horrific combination of fermented ginger, tiny fish, nuts, and too much teeth. In fact, as she jerked back, Rey actually tasted blood beneath the wretched fusion of foods that should never have been mixed. Her bottom lip was bleeding a little, nicked by one of his incisors.

He threw his head back. A plume of black smoke was expelled from his mouth and he groaned. "Ah! Detox. I must do that more often. I mean the— the detox."

"You're terrible at charades," she said to Donna, wiping her mouth and trying to put what just happened out of her mind. It was just the cut that was making her lips tingle. She was helping him—what just happened was no different than what Amy and Rory had gone through with the Siren. No, it was even less than that. That had been about trust, this was purely for shock value. She would do it again in a heartbeat if it meant saving the Doctor, but she would die happy if she never had to.

All the books always made such a big deal about a person's first kiss, but she didn't feel different. Nothing had changed. She wasn't suddenly older or more mature. Her lips and been pressed against someone else's, and she could really say that she was better or worse for it. If anything, she would say that the Doctor had been more affected by what happened than she. For the next few hours, he could barely look at her.

The weather of a perfect day gave way to a brewing thunderstorm that night when they all collected in the dining room for dinner. She sat next to the Doctor and stared at her yellow soup. The mood was somber, heavy with grim all the tragedies that had happened under the sun.

"A terrible day for all of us. The professor struck down, Miss Chandrakala cruelly taken from us. And yet, we still take dinner."

"We are British, Doctor." Lady Eddison's voice was as stiff as her posture. "What else must we do?"

"And then someone tried to poison me. Any one of you had the chance to put cyanide in my drink. But it rather gave me an idea."

"And what would that be," Reverend Golighty asked pleasantly.

"Well, poison." The group collectively tensed and stopped eating. "Drink up. I've laced the soup with pepper."

"Ah, I thought it was jolly spicy," the Colonel remarked, not quite breaking the tense mood, but softening it.

"The active ingredient in pepper is peperine. Among its traditional uses is as an insecticide." Rey's explanation coincided with a crack of thunder, which earned her a few probing looks. "Or so I've heard," she tacked on, feeling uncomfortable.

"Oh, anyone got the shivers," the Doctor asked. No sooner were the words out of his mouth that thunder struck again. The lights blinked out and a particularly strong gust of wind forced the windows open and extinguished all the candles at once.

"What the deuce is that," Colonel Curbishley demanded to know.

"Listen," the Doctor ordered. Rey's stomach dropped, and knowing what was coming next made her glad she hadn't eaten anything yet. The buzzing of the electricity was gone, replaced by something much louder.

"No… no, it can't be," Lady Eddison gasped.

Agatha stood. "Show yourself, demon!"

"Nobody move," the Doctor shouted. "No, don't! Stay where you are!" The Vespiform appeared and there was chaos. Greeves ushered Donna out of the room. The Doctor grabbed Rey's wrist and pulled her with him. "Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!" She grabbed Agatha along, but only the five of them had run to the other room. The Doctor pulled a sword down from a wall display, intending to go back. "Not you, Agatha. You've got a long life to lead yet," he told her when she made to go back. "Rey, stay with them."

"Well we know the butler didn't do it," Donna remarked sarcastically.

"Are you okay," Rey asked, relaxing a little when she received an affirmative response. She then ignored the Doctor's orders and ran back in the dining room. With another _buzz_ , the lights flickered back on. The Doctor stood with the sword held out to defend against an enemy that had already retreated.

"My jewelry…" Lady Eddison felt at her neck. "The firestone—it's gone! Stolen!"

"Roger…" Davenport was staring at his lover's body in horror. The younger Curbishley had been stabbed in the back and was hunched over his dinner on the table.

Robina screamed. Lady Eddison walked over to him on shaking legs. "My son… my child!" For the second time that day she burst into tears.

Leaving the family to their grief, Rey, the Doctor, Donna, and Agatha moved to the sitting room. The fire thoroughly warned them, melting through the cold horror and bathing them in an orange glow. It was almost possible to forget what had just happened. "That poor footman," Donna said from her spot on the sofa next to Agatha. "Roger's dead and he can't even mourn him. 1926. It's more like the dark ages."

"Did you enquire about the necklace," Agatha asked.

"Lady Eddison brought it back from India. It's worth thousands."

"Something doesn't add up," Rey said with a frown. She stood by the fireplace, captivated by the flame's flickering movements. Watching it helped her think, even if it did dry out her eyes. "The Vespiform can fly, has a venomous stinger it can re-grow, and the advantage of a hidden identity. It could kill us easily, but instead it's acting like this."

"Every murder is essentially the same," Agatha said. "They are committed because somebody wants something."

"What does the Vespiform want," the Doctor wondered aloud.

"Doctor, stop it. The murderer is as human as you or I."

He paused, suddenly coming to a new conclusion. "You're right. I've been so up with giant wasps, I've forgotten." He stepped towards Agatha. "You're the expert."

"Look, I told you, I'm just a… purveyor of nonsense."

"But you aren't," Rey pointed out, moving to take a seat beside Agatha. The woman was such an idol of hers that she couldn't stand to just listen to the author disparage herself anymore. Books were how Rey escaped. Some people met up with friends or went on vacations, but the only way Rey could get away was by reading. Agatha's stories were some of her favorites. She lived through them, right alongside every character.

"You know people. Your stories are so good because your characters are real. You get them—hopes, despairs, passions, angers. This isn't just a murder, this is a mystery, and if anyone is going to solve this, it's you."

She wasn't sure if her pep talk really helped. For all her love of books, she was terrible at words herself. But Agatha's back stood a little straighter, and she stopped looking at the ground. At her behest, they gathered the survivors into the sitting room, ready to solve the case once and for all.

"I've called you here on this endless night because we have a murderer in our midst," the Doctor told them. Standing in front of the fireplace meant that the flames lit him in an enigmatic light. He'd taken on the role of the narrator with gusto. "And when it comes to detection, there's none finer… Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Agatha Christie."

She moved to take his place while he took a seat next to Rey. "This is a crooked house… a house of secrets. To understand the solution, we must examine them all. Starting with you… Miss Redmond."

"But I'm innocent, surely," she protested.

"You've never met these people and these people never met you. I think the real Robina Redmond never left London. You're impersonating her!"

"How silly. What proof do you have?"

"You said you'd been to the toilet—"

"Oh, I know this," Donna interrupted from the sidelines. "If she was really posh, she'd say 'loo'."

"Earlier today Miss Noble and I found this on the lawn," Agatha continued. She held up the case they'd all been examining right before the Doctor was poisoned. "Right beneath your bathroom window. You must have heard Miss Noble and Miss Rey were searching the bedrooms and you panicked. You ran upstairs and disposed of the evidence."

"I've never seen that thing before in my life," Robina denied straightforwardly.

"What's inside it," Lady Eddison asked.

"The tools of your trade, Miss Redmond. Or should I say… the Unicorn. You came to this house with one sole intention: to steal the Firestone!"

Knowing she was caught, the woman who claimed to be Robina dropped the act. Her posture instantly shifted to something not quite so stiff, and her accent slipped to that of a Cockney one. "Oh, alright then. It's a fair cop. Yes, I'm the bleedin' Unicorn. Ever so nice to meet you, I don't think. I took my chance in the dark and nabbed it." Standing, she pulled the necklace out from under her dress strap. "Go on then, ya nobs, arrest me. Sling me in jail." The Doctor caught the necklace as she threw it.

"So is she the murderer," Donna asked.

"Don't be so thick. I might be a thief but I ain't no killer."

"Quite," Agatha agreed. "There are darker motives at work, and in examining this household… we come to you, Colonel."

"Damn it, woman! You with your perspicacity! You've rumbled me!" Without a problem, Colonel Curbishley stood up in his wheelchair.

"You— you can walk? But why," Lady Eddison asked.

"My darling, how else could I be certain of keeping you by my side," he implored. Rey thought it was a terrible excuse. Manipulative. Selfish. Insulting. "You're still a beautiful woman, Clemency. Sooner or later, some chap will turn your head. I couldn't bear that. Staying in the chair was the only way I could be certain of keeping you. Confound it, Mrs. Christie! How did you discover the truth?"

"Um, actually, I had no idea," Agatha admitted awkwardly. They _all_ felt awkward. "I was just going to say you were completely innocent."

"Ah… Oh."

"But a manipulative tool," Rey told him honestly.

"Well, shall I sit down then?"

"I think you better had," Agatha said.

"So he's not the murderer," Donna concluded.

"Indeed not. To find the truth, let's return…" The Doctor handed Agatha the Firestone. "To this: far more than the Unicorn's object of desire. The Firestone has quite a history. Lady Eddison."

She sniffled. "I've done nothing!"

"You brought it back from India, did you not? Before you met the Colonel. You came home with malaria and confined yourself to this house for six months, in a room that has been locked ever since, which I rather think means—"

"Stop, please," Lady Eddison begged.

"I'm so sorry. But you had fallen pregnant in India. Unmarried and ashamed, you hurried back to England with your confidante, a young maid, later to become housekeeper, Miss Chandrakala."

"Clemency," the Colonel exclaimed. Of course, after the revelation of his secret, he had no right to judge her. What a couple they made; secrets all around. "Is this true?"

"My poor baby. I had to give him away. Oh, the shame of it."

"But you've never said a word!"

"I had no choice. Imagine the scandal, the family name. I'm British—I carry on."

"And it was no ordinary pregnancy," the Doctor concluded.

Lady Eddison looked at him, horrified. "How can you know that?"

"Excuse me, Agatha, this is my territory. But when you heard that buzzing sound in the dining room, you said 'It can't be.' Why did you say that?"

"You'd never believe it."

"The Doctor has opened my mind to believe many things," Agatha coaxingly told her.

She held out for a moment longer before giving in and telling them the story. Forty years ago in India, she saw what she thought was a falling star. She met a man and fell in love, and the man showed her a secret. "I loved him so much it didn't matter," she told them tearfully. "But he was stolen from me. 1885, the year of the Great Monsoon. The river Jumna rose up and broke the banks. He was taken at the flood, but Christopher left me with a parting gift—a jewel like no other. I wore it always. Part of me never forgot. I keep it close. Always."

"Just like a man," Robina snidely added. "Flashes his family jewels and you end up with a bun in the oven."

"A 'poor little child,'" Agatha quoted. "Forty years ago, Miss Chandrakala took that newborn babe to an orphanage. But Professor Peach worked it out. He found the birth certificate."

"Maiden name," Rey concluded, recalling what Agatha revealed was written on the scrap of paper she plucked from the library fireplace.

"Precisely."

"So she killed him," Donna accused.

"I did not!"

"Miss Chandrakala feared that the professor had unearthed your secret," Agatha continued. "She was coming to warn you."

"So she killed her."

"I did not!"

"Lady Eddison is innocent. Because at this point… Doctor?"

"Thank you." He stood and took over. "Because as this point when we consider the lies and secrets and the key to these events, then we have to consider… it was you, Donna Noble—" He pointed dramatically at her.

"What? Who did I kill?"

"No, but you said it all along, the vital clue: that this whole thing is being acted out like a murder mystery. Which means… it's was you, Agatha Christie." He pointed at her next.

"I beg your pardon, sir?"

"So she killed them," Donna concluded.

"No, but she wrote. She wrote those brilliant, clever books. And who's her greatest admirer? Other than Rey, I mean. The moving finger points… at you, Lady Eddison."

"Leave me alone," she wailed.

"So she _did_ kill them"

"No." Rey knocked the Doctor's arm back down. "Please stop that and just tell them who it is."

He rubbed the sore spot. "Okay, to the point. Everyone, just think. Last Thursday night, what were you doing, Lady Eddison?"

"Uh, I was um… I was in the library. I was reading my favourite Agatha Christie thinking about her plots, and how clever she must be. How is that relevant?"

"Because something else happened Thursday night," Rey said before the Doctor could unnecessarily complicate things again. She turned to face the Reverend.

"I'm sorry," Golighty asked.

"On the lawn this afternoon you told the tale of those boys breaking into your church."

"That's correct… They did. I discovered the two of them: thieves in the night. I was most perturbed. But I apprehended them."

"Alone," she commented.

The Doctor picked up on her tone. "A man of God against two strong lads," he asked. "A man in his forties? Or, should I say, forty years old exactly."

"Oh my God!"

"Lady Eddison, your child—how old would he be now?"

"Forty. He's forty."

"And he's come home," Rey told her.

"Ha! This is poppycock," the reverend exclaimed.

"Oh," the Doctor asked. "You said you were taught by the Christian fathers, meaning, raised in an orphanage."

"My son! Can it be?"

"You found those thieves, Reverend, and you got angry. A proper, deep anger for the first time in your life and it broke the genetic code. You changed. You realized your inheritance. After all these years you knew who you were. Oh, then it all kicks off 'cos this…" He held up the Firestone. "This isn't just a jewel—it's a Vespiform telepathic recorder. It's part of you, your brain, your very essence. And when you activated, so did the Firestone. It beamed your full identity directly into your mind. And at the same time, it absorbed the works of Agatha Christie directly from Lady Eddison. It all became part of you. The mechanics of those novels formed a template in your brain."

"That's why he's been killing like this," Rey concluded, picking up the train of evidence. It made sense, she supposed, in the way impossible things made sense when you were around the Doctor. Or maybe it was just that the Doctor made you more aware of impossible things so that you come make sense of the previously nonsensical?

"Yup. It's what he thinks the world is. Turns out we are in the middle of a murder mystery. One of yours, Dame Agatha," the Doctor finished and sat on the sofa arm.

"Dame," Agatha echoed.

"1971," Rey mumbled.

"Oh, sorry, not yet."

"So he killed them? Yes? Definitely," asked Donna.

"Yes," Rey confirmed.

"Well, this has certainly been a most entertaining evening. Really, you can't believe any of this, surely, Lady Eddizzz—"

"Lady who?"

"Lady Eddizzzon…" Rey held back a flinch as the buzzing threatened to return. The Doctor teased Golighty, hoping to provoke him into revealing himself. He didn't have to try hard. "Damn it! You humanzzz! Worshiping your tribal sky godzzz! I am so much more! That night, the universe exploded in my mind! I wanted to take what wazz mine. And you, Agatha Christie, with your railway station bookstall romancezzz—what'zzz to stop me killing you?"

"Oh, my dear God!" Lady Eddison reached out. "My child!"

"What'zzz to stop me killing you all?" He transformed before their very eyes, shedding his human form and morphing into the wasp.

"Forgive me," she begged.

"No, Clemency!" Between Curbishley and Greeves, they managed to pull her to the door. "Keep away! Keep away, my darling!"

Agatha held the Firestone up in the air. "No! No more murder! If my imagination made you kill, then my imagination will find a way to stop you, foul creature!" She dashed out of the room, leading him away from the others. The Doctor, Rey, and Donna followed after her.

"Wait," Donna yelled. "Now it's chasing us!"

They made it outside, slamming the manor doors behind them. Up ahead, Agatha was already behind the wheel of her car. The Firestone sat in the passenger-side seat as she drove past, honking to horn to grab Golighty's attention. He easily broke free through the doors and resumed his pursuit.

"Over here," Agatha called. "Come and get me, Reverend!"

"Agatha, what are you doing?"

"If I started this, Doctor, then I must stop it!"

"Come on!" He ushered them to another car.

"You said this is the night Agatha Christie loses her memory," Donna shouted. With the top down, the wind roared in Rey's ears, drowning out the sound of the wasp.

"Time is in flux, Donna! For all we know, this is the night Agatha Christie loses her life and history gets changed!"

"But where is she going?!"

"The lake," Rey yelled. They drove past a sign pointing to the Silent Pool. "Her car is found by the lake in the morning."

"What's she doing," the Doctor asked.

Agatha stopped her car and rushed out. She had the Firestone in her hand, dangling it like a cape before a bull. "Here I am! The honey in the trap. Come to me, Vespiform."

"She's controlling it," Rey realized.

"Its mind is based on her thought processes. They're linked."

"Quite so, Doctor. If I die, then this creature might die with me."

"Don't hurt her," he yelled to Golighty. "You're not meant to be like this. You've got the wrong template in your mind."

"He's not listening." Donna plucked the Firestone from Agatha and tossed it in the lake. Before anyone could do anything else, the Reverent dived in after it. Bubbling like it was boiling, the water glowed purple. "Hold do you kill a wasp? Drown it. Just like its father."

"He couldn't help himself," Rey protested.

"Neither could I," Donna said. The look in her eye told Rey that she had noticed how uncomfortable the buzzing had made her.

"Death comes as the end," Agatha said. "And justice is served."

"Murder at the vicar's rage," the Doctor proposed. Donna rolled her eyes. "Needs a bit of work."

"Just one mystery left, Doctor. Who exactly are you?" The words were barely out of Agatha's mouth when she suddenly doubled over in pain.

Rey was quick to catch her before she hit the ground. Unable to handle the weight, her legs buckled quickly beneath her. "It's the Firestone," the Doctor exclaimed. "It's part of the Vespiform's mind! It's dying and it's connected to Agatha!"

She began to glow the same purple as the water, but it soon faded and she relaxed, unconscious. "It let her go," Rey said. She didn't know how to feel about that. "The Reverend chose to save her life in the end."

"Is she alright though," Donna asked.

Both girls looked to the Doctor. "Oh, of course! The amnesia! Wiped her mind of everything that happened. The wasp, the murders."

"And us. She'll forget about us."

"We've found the answer to another riddle," she said consolingly. Sure, it was disappointing that Agatha wouldn't remember her, but it couldn't be helped. And forgetting was better than dying.

The Doctor nodded. "The mystery of Agatha Christie's disappearance. Tomorrow they'll find her car abandoned by the side of the lake. And a few days later she'll turn up at a Harrogate hotel with no memory of what happened." They dropped her off in the TARDIS, watching as Agatha walked in a bit of a daze. She paused at the stone steps in front of the building and looked back without really seeing them. "No one'll ever know," he remarked as they dematerialized.

"Lady Eddison, the Colonel, and all the staff—what about them," Donna asked.

"A shameful story. They'd never talk of it. Too British. While the Unicorn does a bunk back to London Town, she can never say she was there."

"But what happens to Agatha?"

He dug around in one of the storage spaces beneath the grating. "She still has a great life ahead of her," Rey told Donna. "She marries her second husband in less than three years, sees the world, gets knighted." She nudged the Doctor. "And never stops writing."

"You really do admire her, don't you," Donna asked. She nodded, unabashed. "It's a shame though. She never thought her books were any good. And she must have spent all those years wondering."

"Thing is, I don't think she ever quite forgot," the Doctor said. "Great mind like that, some of the details kept bleeding through. All the stuff her imagination could use."

"Like Miss Marple."

"I should have made her sign a contract."

"And—where is it? Hold on… Here we go. 'C.'" He pulled out a chest and rummaged around. "That is 'C' for Cyberman." A silver chestplate was tossed to the ground. "'C' for Carrionite." Next went a crystal globe with three old women yelling in it. "Oh, wait till you meet Martha."

"Who?"

A bust of Caesar was set down next. "And… Christie, Agatha." He held up a paperback copy of Death in the Clouds triumphantly. The cover displayed a giant wasp. "Look at that."

"She did remember."

"Somewhere at the back of her mind, it all lingered. And that's not all. Look at the copyright page."

Donna flipped the book open. "Facsimile edition published in the year… five billion!?"

"People never stop reading them. She is the best-selling novelist of all time."

"But she never knew."

"No one ever really knows how or if they'll be remembered," Rey supposed. "They can only hope for the best. Maybe that's why she kept writing."

"The same thing keeps me traveling," the Doctor stated. "Onwards?"

"Onwards," they agreed.


	4. Gridlock

**This chapter is later than anticipated... Life has been really hectic lately, and not just with the normal holiday/year end wrap-up. I hope this in someway makes up for the wait, so... AKA In Which a Car is like a Collapsed Hospital Room**

* * *

"He's conditioned to serve," the Doctor explained. What he wouldn't give for another hand right now. Why couldn't this regeneration have come with a third hand? Imagine, all the things he could've fixed faster with a third hand. Or if he had Rey with him. Then he'd have an extra two hands.

"…otor… Doctor!"

"Yes— Ow!" He flinched up and banged his head on the console above him. Glaring—honestly, who put that there—he tried to remember what the Ponds were complaining about this time. Humans, so linear. Accidentally pop up a few weeks too many in their past and they get so worried. Now, where was he? Right, tune the thermal flux gauge to the right and make a note to pick up the Ood. "The best thing is, let him do just that. I'll come and pick him up tonight. Whenever tonight is."

He fumbled the sonic, and it rolled away just out of reach. A third hand really would be useful right now. The red wire next to him sparked. "Oh no, got to go. Power drain's threatening to cause the TARDIS to implode." He could smell acrid scent of rotten mulberries now. Ah, that was not good, that was very not good.

Clawing his way out from under the console, he could see various buttons beginning to light up. The lights in the walls brightened, buzzing busily with strain. "Why's it doing that? No, no, no, no, no, don't do that!"

Great, and now the klaxon was going off. And the lights for the ahistorical contextualiser were flickering again and what did that even mean? A loud bang and oops, there went the tennis courts.

"Um…" He spun around. Rey, looking so young and adorable, held out the sonic screwdriver for him. "You dropped this."

There was something about young Rey that got to him. Of course, every Rey was wonderful, and they were all Rey, but his hearts held a soft spot in particular for this younger Rey. Maybe it was because of her eyes, always peeled and wary. Young Rey anticipated danger at every turn and tricks from every direction. Whenever he saw her, he just wanted to give her a big hug and tell her she was safe now.

He didn't do that, of course. It wouldn't change anything. No matter how much he insisted, Rey would only believe it if she came to the realization herself. All he could do was let her come to it in her own time.

"Doctor?"

Right. Chaos in the TARDIS. Possible falling into the Time Vortex with no way out if they weren't torn apart by the time winds first. He took the sonic and did his thing. The photon cooks took a beating and he'd have to get a new holoprobe, but total meltdown was averted, so he called it a win. Rey watched him, one hand clutching the railing for dear life. Right, the shaking. She was fine with the normal TARDIS turbulence, but outside of flight, she had a problem with tremors.

He set the adrift, nice and peaceful. "How was your last trip?"

"We met Agatha Christie with Donna. 1927."

"Bees," he said in remembrance, then frowned. "Ah, that was supposed to be your birthday present." It sounded like such a great idea at the time. How was he supposed to guess they'd come across a homicidal vestiform?

Rey ducked her head, letting her hair cover her face like she tended to do when she was embarrassed. Her face wasn't very expressive, but all he had to do was observe the rest of her body and her emotions were so evident. "Murders aside, it was still the best present and best birthday I've ever had."

And that.

No.

He couldn't let that stand. Resolutely, he set the TARDIS in motion. If dead bodies were the problem, then he just had to bring Rey to a place without people. He knew just the one, too. Ha! He'd like to see a vestiform try and ruin this.

Rey peeked up at him curiously. "Where are we going?"

"Layer Eight of the Solarium. Rey, you might want to get your coat. It's going to be chilly out."

"Snow?"

"Not in the traditional sense."

The corners of her lips twitch, but she didn't insist on any more information. A few minutes later, she came back in a deep black coat and matching gloves. He landed them, taking extra care to do so gently. Face blank, she bounced on her heels slowly, only noticeable because he was looking. He resisted the urge or offer her his hand, and instead held the door open for her.

Three steps out of the doorway, Rey paused and looked around.

The Solarium was so aptly named because the day never ended. Literally. The planet had experienced continuous sunlight for hundreds of thousands of years now. Intelligent life had never evolved, but it was going to be settled on by explorers from a nearby planet if a few decades. For now, though, it was just the two of them.

Eternal day wasn't the only remarkable thing about the Solarium. Thanks to various reasons he could spend all afternoon listing but didn't have the patience for, the continents were all on top of one another like plates, or, oh, stackable cups! The Doctor particularly liked the ones with words on them where you could rearrange the sentence however you liked, though the ones that changed color by what you were drinking were also nice. Rey had been adorably captivated when he first showed them to her.

Layer Eight was the topmost layer. The atmosphere was a bit thin up here, but still breathable. Chilly. They were right beneath the clouds. The first sun had already set, and the third had yet to rise yet, which left the second alone in the sky and leaving the brunt of its heat on Layer Six. Rey's eyes were fixed skyward, her breath coming out in little white puffs. She stretched a hand up.

"It feels like I can reach the sky if I just stretch a little more."

Once again, the Doctor was reaquainted with the human phrase of a heart "skipping a beat." Such a phenomenon was actually impossible for Time Lords baring regeneration or major cardiac failure, but he thought that if it could happen to his body, it would feel something like this. Rey's statement was innocuous and innocent, but it struck a chord in him. To be honest, he loved her straightforward, yet fantastical way of thinking. Science came to him easily, and it was easy to lose himself in all the explanations for _why_.

Explanations were comforting, but they were also boring. With just a few words, Rey could change the way he saw the universe. _It feels like I can reach the sky if I just stretch a little more_. She was right; they were so high up and the sky was right there. Wasn't it fantastic? Feeling so good that you could touch the sky?

"Wait for it," he warned, pretending to check a watch he didn't have. "This is the best part."

Rey looked to him questioningly with nose and cheeks red from the chill and her eyes wide and gleaming. Third sunrise began, and with it the rain. Well, the Doctor called it rain. He supposed it was, technically, even if the water was traveling upwards instead of down. Fat droplets caught the second sunlight, gleaming like a billion crystals around them.

He could see the instant Rey noticed what was going on. Already wide eyes widened even further, and her jaw went slack, lips stretching into a tiny little "O." An arm stretched out, finger delicately popping one of the drops. It burst around her finger into even smaller bubbles and continued to rise up.

"Sorry," she said suddenly.

"Huh? What for?" Apologetic was the last thing he wanted her to feel.

"Earlier when I first showed up, I saw that you were worried. That was because of me, wasn't it? Something I did or will do…"

Ahh, he should've known she'd see right through him. Rey was always so perceptive. Even when she didn't have all the data, her mind made intuitive leaps and interpreted patterns like no one else he had ever met. Even now, she could see through his painted smile and insistences that it was nothing serious. The sudden good atmosphere now felt weighed down with something unsaid.

Rey looked away. Irrationally, he felt the urge to say or do something that would force her gaze back to him. She saved him from making either a jerk or a fool of himself by not apologizing again, but by saying, with complete sincerity, "Thank you."

After a while, he noticed her feet were fading. "You're jumping soon." She had described the experience to him more than once before. He had no idea how she handled it so calmly. He could barely handle watching her fade away. Every time, a sharp fear that she might never come back struck.

"I'll see you soon," Rey bid him, and vanished. The only indications she had ever been there were the creases in the grass soon to be wiped away by the wind, and his unspoken reply laying heavy in his chest.

* * *

Rey stared up at the steel grey ceiling and tried to ignore the ache building in her, well, everywhere. The first thing she did when she landed, on her feet surprisingly enough, was lose her balance and hit her head hard enough to dot her vision with large black spots. A yelling man and woman were somewhere nearby. Their voices overlapped and merged until it was just noise, too loud to make out any specifics.

Between the curses and aborted interrogatives, she could guess what they were saying. A girl popping up out of nowhere could only be greeted by "who" or "what."

As she pushed herself off the ground, a second woman threw her arms around her neck. Rey's first thought was that it was the strangest attempt at a chokehold she'd ever been on the receiving end of. For one, it came from the wrong direction, and second, both the woman's arms were around her neck. Only after she pulled back did Rey realize it was a hug.

"Rey! Am I glad to see you." Dressed like she had come from the 21st century, this could only be Martha Jones. She looked a little younger and a little softer than the picture the Doctor had showed her, but she was undoubtedly the same person. Likely, given the warm response, they were in a bit of a spot. "It's me, Martha," she confirmed when Rey stayed silent.

"Right." They were moving, but it didn't feel like they were going that fast. Certainly not fast enough to be on a spaceship. She guessed it was a car of some sort, though there was no turbulence or sound of wheels on the ground. Definitely futuristic. The compartment was spacious enough that both of them in the back could sit comfortable with some room to spare. Towards the front were the driver's seat and controls. "Where's the Doctor?"

"Hopefully chasing after us planning a rescue. He brought me to New New York. We were wandering 'round Pharmacy Town when these two just _kidnapped me_."

Pharmacy Town? What and where was that? It sounded like an illegal drug peddling operation, not quite the Doctor's modus operandi. And _New_ New York?

"Hey!" The driver yelled, catching their attention. "How the hell did you get here?"

"I obviously fell. Didn't you see me?" He had to have with all the yelling he'd done. She rubbed the back of her head, feeling for a bump. One particular spot felt tender, aching sharply when her fingers brushed against it.

"I saw you appear out of thin air! How'd you do that?!"

She shrugged. "It happens sometimes."

"She's telling the truth," Martha insisted bravely. "Just let us go!"

Rey wondered how much she really knew about her jumping. In fact, now that she thought about it, it was strange how the Doctor's companions all just accepted what she did. If it had been the other way around with Rey as the one who kept meeting someone out of order, she didn't think she could let it go so easily. Jumping wasn't just a strange quirk, it was an impossibility made real.

The Doctor had brushed her off again the second time she tried asking. He'd talked around the topic, expertly skirting the edges like a tightrope walker until he found sureground in a tangent or distraction. She knew that it meant he knew something. It wasn't just pride refusing to admit he didn't understand, he was being deliberately evasive. Asking again after that would be futile. Either something would happen to force him to talk about it or, more likely, she'd have to figure it out on her own.

The couple up front exchanged a look before eyeing both of them carefully. "Look, let's all just calm down, okay," the woman suggested. One arm was wrapped protectively in front of her middle. The man looked like he desperately wanted to step in front of her if it weren't for the fact he was driving. "I'm Cheen and this is Milo. We're sorry. We're really, really sorry. We just needed access to the fastline, but I promise, as soon as we arrive, we'll drop you two off and you can go back and find your friend."

"Seriously," Martha asked incredulously. Rey silently agreed with her bafflement. It sounded too good to be true. If it were that easy, the wouldn't have had to resort to kidnapping in the first place.

"I swear! Look." Cheen pulled her hair aside and showed them a clear patch on her neck. "HONEST" was printed on it with a "36" underneath. "Honesty patch."

"All the same, that's still kidnapping!"

"You said 'when we arrive.' Where are we now," she asked.

"We're on the motorway," Milo answered.

"Is that fog then?" The window was practically useless. Whatever scenery was around them was swallowed up by the hazy air, a little yellower than the fog on Earth. Anything could've been out there and there would be no way of knowing until it was too late.

"That's the exhaust fumes," Milo said offhandedly, like it was no big deal the air was so polluted. Likely, to him it wasn't. He and Cheen had probably grown up with the air so bad that it was just another fact of their lives. They lived in New New York which housed a town rife with drugs, and the pollution was so thick, you couldn't see through it. Just another Tuesday.

"We're going out to Brooklyn. Everyone says the air's so much cleaner, and we couldn't stay in Pharmacy Town 'cause…" He rubbed Cheen's knee. Both their faces were lit up with childish charm. Young and foolishly in love, they were clearly too enamored with the idea of a better life to see things clearly.

Cheen grinned up at them with a mix of shyness and barely contained . "Well, 'cause of me. I'm pregnant. We only discovered it last week. Scan says it's going to be a boy." They both looked so happy it was almost adorable if they weren't technically kidnappers and imprisoners.

"Great. What do I do now, congratulate my kidnappers," Martha asked.

"Congratulations," Rey said with no idea what else to say.

"Oh, we're not kidnappers. Not really."

"Nope. You're idiots! You're having a baby and you're wearing that?" Martha ripped the patch off Cheen, who let out a small yelp of pain. "Not anymore."

Although she agreed with the sentiment entirely, Rey couldn't help but side-eye Martha. Exactly what it was that pinged her radar, she couldn't say. The suspicion just struck her suddenly, and once it did, she couldn't let it go.

"This'll be as fast as we can," Milo promised. "We'll take the motorway to the Brooklyn flyover, and then after that it's gonna be a while 'cause then there's no fastlane, just ordinary roads. But at least it's direct."

"It's only ten miles," Cheen added meekly.

Ten miles wasn't so bad. Again, Rey thought there had to be a catch. Nothing was ever that easy. "How long will the trip take?"

"About six years."

"What!?"

Neither of the parents-to-be noticed the outrage in Martha's voice. "Be just in time for him to start school."

"Ten miles in six years? You could walk the distance in less time." Rey listened to the explanation with as much patience as she could muster. Though it wasn't really much to begin with, given the situation, and her levels were rapidly decreasing with each passing second. Milo and Cheen were just so irritatingly, optimistically blind. Having hope was one thing, but refusing to even acknowledge the existence of a problem was suicidal. She just hoped that it would be metaphoric in this case and not literal.

"How many cars are out there," Martha asked.

"I don't think anyone knows." Cheen offered them each a round, flat wafer. Rey shook her head, but Martha accepted with a soft thanks. "Here you go. Hungry?"

"Do you know how far down is it to the fastlane?"

"Oh, it's right at the bottom, underneath the traffic jam. But not many people can afford three passengers, so it's empty down there. Rumor has it that you can reach up to thirty miles per hour."

"Wonderful." A whole thirty mph. Though the vehicle seemed spacious at first, now it felt too cramped. There was no room to pace properly; even Rey's shorter legs could eat up the distance between walls in a mere two and a half steps. She was starting to feel like she did after her second escape attempt, when they restrained her to the bed for three days. A live wire was plugged in directly to her muscles, current prompting them to _go, go, go_.

Only, there was nowhere _to_ go.

There had been a reason why escape attempt number three had occurred so soon after attempt number two.

"But how are you supposed to live inside this thing," Martha asked, voicing her thoughts. "It's tiny."

"Oh, we stocked up," Cheen chirped. "Got self-replicating fuel, muscle stimulants for exercise, and there's a chemical toilet at the back. All waste products are recycled as food."

Martha abruptly stopped eating. "Okay."

"Oh, another gap. This is brilliant!" Milo pulled them into the empty space.

"Car sign in," an electronic voice requested.

"Car 465-Diamond-6, on descent to fastlane, thank you very much."

"Please drive safely."

Eventually, Rey ended up with her back to a wall and legs curled against her chest. She wanted to make herself as small as possible to give the illusion of more space. _One. Four. Six point nine-four. Nine point oh-one. Ten point eight-one…_

Martha looked at her with such obvious concern. Obvious and genuine. It made Rey feel even guiltier for her suspicions and reaction. She was well away she had a prejudice and she was trying to actively work against it, but "trying" was the key word. "What are you doing?"

"Reciting atomic weights." Organizing the periodic table was one of her go-to de-stress techniques. She'd list them by weight, alphabetic by name, split into groups and re-alphabetized. If she was really desperate, she might move onto basic compounds.

"Are you about to have a panic attack?" She could practically see the mental checklist Martha was running through Rey knew them by heart. Shortness of breath. Sweating. Elevated heart rate. Muscle twitches or shakes.

"Are you a doctor, Martha?" _Twelve point oh-one. Fourteen. Fifteen point nine-nine…_

"Training to be, remember? I told you when we first met."

She didn't flinch, but a blind person could've seen how much tenser her body became. Martha's eyes darkened with hurt and confusion. "First for you," Rey told her, trying to ignore the constricting feeling in her throat. "This is the first for me." _Eighteen point nine-nine. Twenty point one-eight…_

"Hey! What gives? Why are you looking at me like that?"

She averted her eyes. This was a trainwreck in progress. Why couldn't the Doctor be here with them? He was a great buffer, shoving pass social cues and rules with the grace of a bulldozer. You had to actively work to make a worse impression than he did. Part of this was on purpose for whatever reason, but Rey wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

This time.

"I'm not good with doctors…"

"You're fine with the Doctor."

"He isn't exactly a normal doctor." Muscle group by group, she forced her body to relax. If she didn't, she really was going to have a panic attack. Of course, that had to be why she started having muscle spasms right then. "It's fine, I'll get over it, I just need a second." It was fine. She wasn't back in the hospital. Not all doctors and nurses were like the ones that treated her. The Doctor had chosen Martha for a reason. She knew who Rey was, so they had clearly met before with no issue.

"Another ten layers to go," Milo reported, completely oblivious to the drama happening in the back seat. Cheen had moved back up to the passenger seat beside him. "We're scorching." A loud, low sound shuddered through the entire car as they descended, like someone had combined a growl with a creak and doubled the ominosity. "What's that?"

Desperate for a distraction, Rey pressed her palm flat on the ground. The floor vibrated a little harder than usual. "It's coming from below."

"It does have noise, doesn't it," Cheen asked excitedly. "It's like Kate said. The stories are true."

Martha glanced at her sharply. "Stories?"

Milo dismissed all of three of them. "It's the sound of the air vents. That's all. The exhaust fumes travel down, so at the base of the tunnel they've got air vents."

"They don't seem like they're working," Rey noted. The air outside looked even thicker now. What, if anything, could survive out there?

"No, the stories are much better," Cheen insisted. "They say people go missing on the motorway. Some cars just vanish, never to be seen again. 'Cause there's something living down there, in the smoke. Something huge. And hungry. And if you get lost on the road… it's waiting for you."

The rumbling increased in volume. "But like I said. Air vents," Milo said, not sounding quite as sure anymore. "Going down to the next layer."

In an attempt to drown out the noise, he pulled up a programme on the screen at the front of the vehicle. A blonde anchorwoman calling herself Sally Calypso led the broadcast that seemed to be an amalgamation of different news topics. Oddly enough, no matter how much she talked, she never named any specifics. There was just enough to be mildly informative, but every sentence began with "any day now," or "reports suggest," or "does this mean…" In the end, it all amounted to a bunch of rumors and speculations.

If there was ever a big blinking neon sign that read "WARNING: DANGER," it was here.

"This is for all of you out there on the roads," Sally bid. "We're so sorry. Drive safe."

Milo and Cheen sang along to the song, something melodious and slow. They probably played the same one every night in a show of symbolic unity or something. Even Martha seemed subdued, but it's effects were lost with how anxious Rey was. The Doctor was coming, she knew he would be coming, but there was no guarantee he'd get to them in time. Just as, she wasn't going to just going to sit around and wait to be rescued if there was something she could do. At the very least, she could help keep them alive until the Doctor came.

"Fastlane access," the electronic voice announced once the song was over. "Please drive safely."

"We made it. The fastlane."

Milo's and Cheen's celebration didn't last long. The car might've finally reached the proper road, but it didn't mean anything if they couldn't get off the motorway. All three exits to the Brooklyn Junction were closed no matter what Milo did.

"Try again," Cheen suggested. He tapped the exits one by one, and each time the message "JUNCTION CLOSED" beeped on screen.

"Brooklyn Turnoff One closed." _Beep._ "Brooklyn Turnoff Two closed." _Beep._

"What do we do?"

"We'll keep going round," Milo decided. "We'll do the whole loop. By the time we come back round, they'll be open."

She wasn't happy, but there was little else they could do. The rumbling picked up again, louder than last time. "Do you still think it's just the air vents?"

"What else could it be?"

A new noise joined the cacophony. This one was even louder, but also more airy, like a sigh or a hiss.. "What the hell is that?"

"It's just—the hydraulics."

"It sounds like breathing," Martha noted nervously.

"It's all the exhaust fumes out there," Milo insisted. "Nothing could breathe in that."

"Nothing you know of," Rey corrected. Even regular Earth had extremophiles in volcanoes or the deep sea. An organism could've very well evolved and adapted to thrive in polluted environments.

"Calling Car 465-Diamond-6," the intercom announced. "Repeat: calling Car 465-Diamond-6."

"This is Car 465-Diamond-6," Milo said into the transmitter. "Who's that? Who are you?"

"I'm in the fastlane, about fifty yards behind," a woman answered in a voice that told them she was trying very hard to stay calm. "Can you get back up? Can you get _off_ the fastlane?"

"We only have permission to go down. We—we need the Brooklyn Flyover."

"It's closed. Go back up."

"We can't. We'll just go around."

"Don't you understand," she snapped. "They're _closed_. They're _always_ closed." How long she had been down there to speak with such certainty? Was that how they were going to end up, just going round and round over and over?

Cheen reacted badly to the news. Her hands were clasped over her mouth as if to physically hold in the little distressed gasps that still managed to escape. Martha tried to soothe her, rubbing her back and looking brave despite her own fear.

"We're stuck down here," the woman over the intercom proclaimed. "And there's something else. Out there in the fog. Can't you hear it?"

That something let out a shrill roar just then, and this time there was no writing it off. Milo tried still, but even he sounded like even he didn't believe himself anymore. "That's the air vents."

"Jehovah! What are you, some stupid kid? Get out of here!" A terrible crashing cut her off from saying more. They could hear rumbling and the sound of metal giving way.

"What was that," Rey asked.

Screams answered her. "I can't move! They've got us!"

"But what's happening," Milo demanded to know.

She reached over and grabbed the transmitter from him, uncaring of how close they were. All of them were crowded in the front compartment, desperate for any new shred of information they could get. "Can you see what has you? What is it?"

For a moment there was only indecipherable yelling. Then, "Just drive, you idiots! Get out of here! Get out!"

Milo grabbed the transmitter back. "Can you hear me?! Hello?!"

"Just drive," Martha ordered. "Do what she said—get us out of here!"

"But where?"

"Straight ahead," Rey decided. "As fast as you can."

Cheen was outright sobbing now. "What is it? What's out there? What is it?"

The faster they went, the more violently the car shook. Rey couldn't let go of the feeling that whatever was down there was right on their heels. This must've been what wild rabbits or field mice felt like. "Can you go faster?"

"I'm at top speed."

A message on the screen read "PROXIMITY WARNING," and the automated voice announced "No access above."

"But this is an emergency," Milo insisted to no avail.

Every once in a while there was a sharp sound, like the kind you would get from snapping scissors shut quickly. Rey leaned over to peer through the window. It was near impossible to see anything through the fumes, but she swore she'd occasionally see a flickering shadow or silhouette of something moving by quickly. The intervals between snaps were getting shorter and shorter. She couldn't tell if it was true, or if it was just her fear making the sounds echoing closer and closer in her ears.

Milow tried calling the police only to get a recording. "Thank you for you call. You have been placed on hold."

A thought suddenly struck her. "Turn it all off."

"You've got to be joking."

"No, listen," Martha said, coming to the same realization. "It's all fog out there, so how can they see us? Maybe it's the engines, the sound or the heat, or the light—I don't know! Turn everything off. They might not be able to find us."

"What if you two are wrong?"

"It's either we're wrong and they catch us eventually, or we're right and we buy some more time," Rey snapped. "Which would you prefer?"

Gritting his teeth and sending a quick prayer skyward, Milo flipped some switches on the console and the car went quiet. They sat, no one saying a word as they waited in anticipation.

"They've stopped," Cheen finally whispered after a few minutes of silence. There was no more snapping or flashes of movement outside the window.

"Yeah, but they're still out there," Milo pointed out.

"How did you think of that?"

"I saw it on a film," Martha explained, and there was a small break in the tension, more out of self-preservation than true humor..

"Submarines used to pull this trick in order to avoid detection," Rey added.

Martha nodded. "Trouble is, I can't remember what they did next. Can you?"

"They most likely used the current to get away or waited for the enemy to pass. Not something we can do."

"Well, you better think of something, because we've lost the aircon. If we don't switch the engines back on, we won't be able to breathe," Milo told them.

"How long have we got," Martha asked.

"Eight minutes, maximum."

Their bought time passed in tense silence, only broken by Cheen's occasional hitching sobs and Milo's tapping. Martha didn't seem to know what to do with her arms, crossing and uncrossing them every few seconds. Rey had gone still, her only movement the sporadic rise and fall of her chest with every breath. They were trying their best to conserve air, but between the tension and anxiety, no one could relax enough to make much of a difference. Cheen asked how much was left in a whisper.

"Two minutes."

"There's always the Doctor. That friend of ours. He might think of something," Martha offered, trying to remain optimistic. When Milo, trying to be kind in his own way, told her that no one was coming, she looked like she might cry.

"He looked kind of nice," Cheen offered.

"But rude," Rey added jokingly. This Doctor had once described himself to her as _rude and not ginger_. Apparently, that was a sore spot for him. Donna had laughed in his face when he said that and lorded her natural hair color over him for days. Rey couldn't wait to see how he would react when he met Amy for the first time.

"Are you and him…" Cheen left the rest of the question unasked.

"Sometimes I think he likes me, but sometimes I just think he needs someone with him." Martha's voice was far-off and a little sad. Rey knew exactly where she was coming from.

"I never even asked. Where's home?"

"It's a long way away. I didn't really think. I just followed the Doctor and Rey and… they don't even know where I am. My mum and dad. If I died here, they'd never know."

"So, um, who is he, then? This Doctor," Milo asked nervously.

"I don't know. Well, not really. There's so much he never says."

"But that means that… the only hope right now it… a complete stranger." The three of them exchanged horrified looks. "Well that's no use!"

"It doesn't matter if we're strangers," Rey said in a small voice. Was it just her, or was it beginning to get difficult to breathe? She told herself not to think about the earthquake and how this was _just like it_ with the enclosed space, darkness, and lack of air. "The Doctor is the type of person to whom personal relations don't matter. He'll still try to save you even if he doesn't like you."

"How long have you been traveling with him," Martha asked, side-eying her.

She shrugged. "It's hard to keep track." Once she had jumped three times and ended up experiencing thirty-two straight hours of sunlight. In another instance, they ended up caught in a time loop and lived the same two hours a dozen times over before they could correct the malfunctioning TARDIS part that caused it. Compared to her future self whose presence always seemed to lurk in the corners, she probably still had a long way to go, but she was no longer the greenhorn she was the first time she had jumped. "Long enough to know that there are no guarantees. But I would bet on him every time, even still."

She could feel the dampness of Martha's hand even through the black gloves she was still wearing. Though unfamiliar and unexpected, she didn't jerk away. If holding hands could provide Martha with any comfort, then she would relent.

"Rey is right," Martha said determinedly. "Because you haven't seen the things he can do. Honestly, just trust us, both of you. You've got your faith, you've got your songs and your hymns. And we've got the Doctor."

Milo and Cheen, surer than they were a minute ago, exchanged looks. "Right."

Time was up. Milo prepped the car to turn back on. His left hand hovered over the flip to activate the engine. "Systems back online," the automated voice said. The lights flickered back on.

He and Cheen held hands briefly. "Good luck," he said.

"And you," Martha replied.

He flipped the switch. The engine and the shaking both started again, and the car shot forwards. Milo tried his best to dodge the arms snapping at them, turning left and right, up and down, and in one occasion, twirling. If this was what it felt like to ride a rollercoaster, Rey decided she never wanted to try an actual one.

It was inevitable that they were caught, but anticipation did nothing to prepare her for it. She nearly went headfirst into the side of the car with how sudden the stop was. Everything was either crashing or creaking or sparking, and the sounds were near indecipherable from one another. Just when she thought it was over, something knocked them loose. The car zoomed off again, dodging every which way Milo could navigate.

The screen, left to static after the police failed to respond, flickered back to focus. "Sorry, no Sally Calypso, she was just a hologram. My name is the Doctor." Martha cheered. Milo and Cheen actually started laughing with relief. "And this is an order. Everyone drive up. Right now. I've opened the roof of the motorway. Come on. Throttle those engines. Drive up. All of you, the whole under-city. Drive up, drive up, drive, up! Fast! We've got to clear that fastlane. Drive up and get out of the way." He spoke directly to them next. "Oi! Car 465-Diamond-6! Martha! Drive up!"

"That's the Doctor!"

"We can't go up," Milo protested. "We'll hit the layer!"

"Do as he says," Rey told him. Now that she knew the Doctor had a plan, she was feeling much calmer. "Drive up."

"You've got access above," he told them. "Now go!"

Probably faster than it was safe to do so, Milo directed the car upwards. In a matter of seconds they broke free from the lower level of exhaust gas. Light streamed down from overhead as the previously closed ceiling parted and revealed the sky. "It's daylight," Cheen shouted. "Oh my God. That's the sky, the real sky!"

"He did it!" Martha gave her a big hug. "We told you, he did it!"

Still on the screen, the Doctor was conversing over the intercom with someone named Brannigan. He complained about wanting his coat back. "And Car 465-Diamond-6, I've sent you a flight path. Come to the Senate."

"We're on our way."

"Rey! When did you get here? Are you— Have you been in the car with Martha this whole time?"

"Yes. The jumping could use a bit of a landing adjustment. We're coming up."

"I'll see you soon," he said warmly.

The map on the screen led them through the city towards a large, fancy building. Cheen and Milo waved them off cheerfully before leaving to find a place of their own to settle down. It seemed they were right about there being jobs considering the entire over-city was abandoned. No, not abandoned. Left behind. The people were all dead and the city was left standing still on its own.

"Doctor?"

"Over here." He was accompanied by an actual anthropomorphized cat woman and a giant head in a giant, broken tank.

"Doctor! What happened over there," Martha asked. Skeletons were all the filled the senate building, the remains of politicians still seated where they died. "What's that?"

"It's the Face of Boe. It's alright. Come and say help. And this is Hame. She's a Cat. Don't worry. He's the one that saved you two, not me."

"My lord gave his life to save the city," Hame said sadly. "And now he's dying."

Rey kneeled by the Doctor in front of the Face of Boe. He was wheezing, and every breath looked like a struggle. Martha stood just behind them, more than a little freaked out by the sudden turn of events. "No, don't say that," the Doctor urged sadly. "Not old Boe. Plenty of life left."

"It's good to breathe the air once more." His voice was low and rumbly. Heavy, but not grating. Grandfatherly, or so Rey imagined.

She put her hand to a part of the tank still intact. Looking at him made her feel incredibly sad. Mourning was an unfamiliar emotion she had never really felt before meeting the Doctor. Now it was everywhere—for the lives lost, the city left behind, and the tired flame in front of her, soon to be extinguished. "Thank you for saving us."

One of his tendrils reached out weakly towards her. It brushed ever so slightly against the back of her gloved hand. Perhaps it was just her imagination, exhausted by the sheer amount of lost potential around them, all the if onlys and would haves that never could, but she could've sworn it was another hand that covered hers. The touch, barely felt, was soft and warm and so, so nostalgic she could've cried.

The Face of Boe's mouth didn't move, and the others gave no indication of listening, but she heard his message loud and clear.

"Who is he," Martha asked softly.

"I don't even know" the Doctor admitted. "Legend says that the Face of Boe has lived for billions of years. Isn't that right? And you're not about to give up now."

"Everything has its time," the Face of Boe said. "You know that, old friend, better than most."

"The legend says more," Hame added.

"Don't. There's no need for that."

She refused to heed him. "It says that the Face of Boe will speak his final secrets to travelers."

"Yeah, but not yet. Who needs secrets, eh?" Typical Doctor, trying to get out of a goodbye.

"One part of this is already done," Hame said. _There was no avoiding this_ , she meant _._

"I have seen so much," the Face of Boe told them. "Perhaps too much. I am the last of my kind—as you are the last of yours, Doctor."

Rey looked at him to gage his reaction. When he'd given her the rundown on who he was and what he did, he mentioned a Time War and that he was the only survivor. Stone faced, he had braced himself to explain more, but for the first time, Rey hadn't asked. The raw sorrow had been too much that the words died before they could even fully form. She still believed that it was better to know, always, but just this once could be the exception. So unless he wanted to talk about it, she wouldn't push.

"That's why we have to survive," the Doctor said almost beseechingly. "Both of us. Don't go."

"I must. But know this, Time Lord: you are not alone."

The Face of Boe closed his eyes and let out his final breath. Quietly, without fanfare, and in the middle of a city bursting with new life, he died. It felt like a part of the world went with him, if only the part that was enclosed by the Senate. The room looked starker, the colors less bright. Hame began to sob. After a moment, the Doctor rose and put an arm around her shoulders.

She didn't cry for long. Wiping her tears, she collected herself decisively and left. Since the Face of Boe's final act was to save the city, she insisted it was her duty to protect it. The Doctor, Rey, and Martha managed to hitch a ride to where they left the TARDIS. Pharmacy Town was deserted. No doubt news of the over-city needing more hands had already spread.

"All closed down."

"Happy," Martha asked him.

"Happy happy," he replied. Rey had a feeling she'd missed something, but it wasn't important right now. "New New York can start again. And they've got Novice Hame. Just what every city needs—cats in charge! Come on, time we're off!"

Stubbornly, Martha stayed put. "But what did he mean, the Face of Boe? 'You're not alone.'"

"I don't know," he admitted.

"You've got me. And Rey. Is that what he meant?"

"I don't think so. Sorry."

Her hopeful little smile died. "Then what?"

"Doesn't matter. Back to the TARDIS, off we go." He turned to head off. Instead of following, Martha grabbed a chair someone had left behind and plopped down, arms crossed. "Alright, you staying?"

"'Till you talk to me properly, yes. He said 'last of your kind.' What does that mean?"

"It doesn't really matter."

"Doctor." He looked at Rey almost pleadingly. "It's fine if you don't want to talk about it. But please don't lie like that."

"You don't talk," Martha said. "You never say! Why not?"

They could hear music in the distance, getting louder and louder. It was the same song Martha and Rey head on the broadcast, only this time it wasn't weighed down by sadness. The melodious notes were light with hope and renewal. "It's the city. The city is singing."

The Doctor looked back at the two girls and signed. "I lied to you Martha, 'cos I liked it. I could pretend. Just for a bit, I could imagine they were still alive, underneath a burnt orange sun." He took a deep breath, preparing himself. "I'm not just a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. The Face of Boe was wrong. There is no one else."

"What happened?"

For a moment he just stood there. Then he grabbed a chair of his own and sat across from Martha. Rey moved to stand behind him. She placed a hand on the top back. Touching him, even if she had taken her gloves off, felt like it would've fallen short, but she couldn't hold herself back from reaching out.

"There was a war. A Time War, the last Great Time War. My people fought a race called the Daleks, for the sake of all creation. And they lost. They lost. Everyone lost. They're all gone now. My family, my friends, even that sky. Oh, you should have seen it, that old planet. The second sun would rise in the south, and the mountains would shine. The leaves on the trees were silver, and when they caught the light every morning it looked like a forest on fire. When autumn came, the breeze would blow through the branches like a song…"

Once he started speaking it was like he couldn't stop. They stayed there for hours until the sun set and it was long past dark. The entire time he told them stories of his old home. The red grass. The school robes. His childhood house halfway atop a mountain and an old barn he used to hide in.

By the time they reached the TARDIS, he had gone silent. Martha left them in the console room with a heavy but supportive smile. Without a word, the Doctor dematerialized them. It was only when they were drifting in the Time Vortex that he spoke again, voice hoarse from overuse. "The Face of Boe gave you a message too, didn't he?"

Rey nodded. She had been wondering when he'd ask.

"What did he tell you?"

Standing face to face, her gaze fell short. The Doctor's brown suit was nearly the same shade of his hair. After getting to know him and seeing pictures of some of the other outfits his older regenerations preferred, she was surprised at how tame his clothes were. Brown was a color people rarely took time to think about, not like the passion of red, the depth of blue, or the all-encompassing nature of black and white. Trainers and hair aside, he looked like any human man off the street.

"Rey?"

Right, she was getting distracted. "It was a short message, same as yours. Four little words that would change the world if they were true."

"What did he say?"

"He said—"

* * *

Rey woke up to a hospital gray ceiling and every part of her body aching. Her throat felt the worst, raw and burning and a mess of exposed nerve endings. Every breath felt like she was igniting her lungs. A breathing mask covered her nose and mouth, and the heightened oxygen concentration was irritating. Soft restraints wrapped around her wrist and ankles with a long strap holding her torso down and another across her thighs just above her knees. Nearby, machines beeped intermittently.

Doctor Usher stood by her bed in his white doctor's coat and clipboard. "Don't try to talk."

Rey didn't listen. Nothing but air came out when she tried, not even a croak. Her throat burned even more.

"I said don't talk. You were hurt badly in the accident. Do you remember? There was an earthquake. By the time they found you, you were suffering from severe oxygen deprivation. You've been out for a long time. You're lucky to be alive."

It was hard to feel lucky about anything in her current situation.

"We've had to move you to a new facility. This is the Nevermore Institute. You'll be staying here for the foreseeable future." There was nothing in Dr. Usher's voice that soothed her. No reassurance at all, not even faked. "Try and get some rest."

His footsteps echoed as he walked out the room and down the corridor. She didn't cry. She didn't scream. She didn't struggle. Rey shut her eyes and tried to remember the Face of Boe's words.

This isn't a dream.


	5. The Unquiet Dead

**A somewhat belated Happy New Year to all seven of you reading this! (At what point is it too late to wish someone a happy new new year? Asking for a friend...) Anyway, this chapter comes with a small warning: there's a moment where a character talks negatively about mental illness. This in no way reflects my own opinions about the topic.** **It's brief, but I thought I should warn ahead anyway.**

 **So without further ado... AKA In Which Aliens Make Terrible Zombies**

* * *

"Rey!"

The Doctor that greeted her was one she had never met before, though he clearly knew her. Putting aside his large ears and nose, he was as different from his other regenerations as they were to each other. His distinctly not red hair was closely shaved, which made his ears appear to stick out even further, and he wore a leather jacket of all things. When he spoke, it was with a Northern accent wrapped around his words.

He looked happy to see her.

"You're back!"

Wordlessly, she nodded and held down the part of the TARDIS he had previously been pointing at. Across the console and over the shrieking alarms, a girl yelled. "It's not going to work!" Looking around the central column, all Rey could make out was blonde hair and a young face. She still immediately recognized her profile. Rose Tyler. She was only a year older than Rey when she started traveling with the Doctor.

"Oi," he chidded. "I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting. Now, you've seen the future—let's have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?"

"What happened in 1860?"

"I don't know, let's find out. Hold on, here we go!"

They landed with a shake violent enough that it sent them all sprawling on the floor. The alarms cut out at once. Steam came off of the controls, but at least they weren't sparking like they all too often end up. "Blimey," Rose exclaimed, laughing.

"You're telling me! Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I think so! Nothing broken…" She did a quick self-assessment.

"Rey?" He helped her back up to her feet, giving her a once-over. She nodded, indicating she was fine.

"Did we make it," Rose asked excitedly. "Where are we?"

The Doctor glanced over at the monitor. "I did it! Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860."

"That's so weird… it's Christmas."

He gestured the two girls over to the door. "All yours."

Rose hesitated, still trying to wrap her head around what had happened. It must've been early for her. After a while with the Doctor, there was less deliberating beforehand and more rushing blindly in the face of inevitable danger. Which really said something about the type of people he tended to take with him. Any sensible person would have the opposite reaction. Not that Rey could really talk. By that logic, she wasn't very sensible either.

"But, it's like… Think about it, though. Christmas. 1860. Happens once, just once, and it's gone. It's finished. It'll never happen again. Except for you." Rose studied him intently. "You can go back and see days that are dead and gone and a hundred thousand sunsets ago… No wonder you never stay still…"

"Not a bad life. Better with two" He nudged Rey's arm conspiratorially. She managed to muster a twitch of her lips, but it quickly died.

"Or three," Rose suggested, cheering up. "Come on then!"

"Oi, oi, oi! Where do you think you're going?"

She froze. "1860?"

"Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella! There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on your left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, it's the fifth door on your left. Hurry up!"

She rushed off before she forgot the directions. Rey moved to follow—even if she didn't want to change into full period clothing, a jacket wouldn't be remiss. The Doctor reached out and grabbed her clothed wrist gently, stopping her before she could get far.

"You're not back." He looked at her intently, not dissimilar from how Rose looked at him earlier. "Is this the first time we're meeting for you?"

What had given her away? "How did you know?"

"So I was right? Of course I was right. I mean, of course I know. Hello, I'm the Doctor."

"Hi." This time, she actually managed a small smile, and he brightened when he saw it, looking proud of himself. His good mood was infectious. Already, Rey could feel herself begin to defrost and settle in. "I should help Rose find the wardrobe. Goodness knows the TARDIS likes moving that room around." He grinned and ushered her off.

Rose was indeed lost when Rey found her wandering down one of the hallways. Rather than backtracking and trying to recall the Doctor's rapidfire directions, she demonstrated a trick she learned from Donna. Who apparently had learned it from her, confusingly enough. Did that technically mean she taught herself?

Picking a random door, she paused with her hand on the knob and pictured where she wanted to go. Rack after rack; more clothes than she could count; outrageous hats… When the door swung open, the right room greeted them. She thanked the TARDIS quietly, patting the wall.

Rose reacted… unexpectedly. Rey wasn't so foolish that she expected to automatically get along with everyone she met. Actually, her current streak was something of a record, and the exception rather than the rule. But to be glared at so openly caught her off guard. The future her that Rose met had to have done something to anger her, but what? Should she apologize? But she had a feeling that offering a half-hearted apology would only make things worse.

They searched for their clothes separately. Eventually, she settled on a long skirt and a white coat that she paired with black gloves. The bottom of the skirt could masquerade as period appropriate, and the coat was heavy and long enough to cover the more modern parts of her attire underneath it. Rey had never worn heels in her life and an adventure with the Doctor was certainly not the time to start. She stuck with boots that had a decent tread for when the inevitable time for running came up. Rose ended up picking an off-the-shoulder gown with a black bodice and a magenta skirt.

They hadn't taken that long, but the Doctor had still decided now was the perfect time to start some unnecessary repairs. He dropped the sonic when they stepped back into the console room. "Blimey!"

"Don't laugh," Rose commanded with a laugh of her own.

"You look beautiful!" She quieted and the Doctor looked away awkwardly. "…considering."

"Considering what?"

"That we're human," Rey elaborated. Same old doctor, offering a compliment and an insult in the same breath. She walked over and plucked the sonic off the floor. "Repairs later, 1860 now."

"Wait," Rose cried. "Aren't you going to change?"

He jumped out from under the controls obviously still wearing the same clothes. "I've changed my jumper! Come on!"

Pointing to ensure he got the point, Rose commanded him to stay where he was claiming that it was her turn. She ran to the doors and threw them open with flourish. The cobblestone street outside was covered with fresh snow. Hesitantly, she made the first footprint before quickly withdrawing her foot and then stepping out altogether.

The Doctor offered Rey his arm. "Ready?"

"Geronimo," she teasingly deadpanned.

"What?"

"You'll get it later."

He huffed, but it did little to hide the smile tugging at his lips. "Here we go. History!"

Rose took his other arm as they strolled down the streets. Her eyes were wide and hungry as she took in the sights. Carolers were out making their rounds, singing happy, festive songs. Rey walked sedately on the Doctor's right, taking everything in like there was going to be a test on it afterwards. Her exposed face was cold, and the arm beneath her gloved hand was solid.

This was real, she reminded herself.

The Doctor stopped to buy a newspaper from a nearby seller and lost a bit of his grin as he scanned it. "I got the flight a bit wrong."

"I don't care," Rose responded without looking.

"How wrong," Rey asked.

"Just a bit. It's not 1860, it's 1869."

"I don't care," Rose repeated, louder.

"And it's not Naples."

"I don't care."

"It's Cardiff," she remarked. She had to stretch a little to read it around his arm. If there was one thing that didn't change, besides the lack of ginger hair and maleness, it was that the Doctor was tall. This regeneration was around the same height as his other two incarnations, which put him more than half a foot taller than her.

Rose paused, her Cheshire cat smile dropping. "Right…"

Right on cue, the screaming started. Whatever disappointment that had possessed the Doctor was instantly replaced. He beamed and looked at Rey with childish glee. "That's more like it!" Tossing the newspaper, he grabbed her hand and ran off towards the chaos.

The wind carried the sound further than expected, but the theater wasn't that much of a distance away. It was mostly empty inside, the patrons having all fled in fear and panic. A few individuals remained inside, including an older man on stage who was likely the performer before things got out of hand. A seated old woman had what looked like a ghost trailing out of her mouth and zooming around in the air.

"Fantastic." The last of whatever it was left the woman and she slumped lifeless in her chair. "Did you see where it came from," the Doctor asked the man on the stage.

"Ah, the wag reveals himself, does he? I trust you're satisfied, sir!"

"He thinks you did this," Rey asked, unfazed by the hostility. This was familiar. Non-companions were either almost eerily compliant or immediately distrustful. "Why do you think he did this?"

"Oi! Leave her alone!" Rose's command was aimed at another man and a younger woman who were trying to make off with the old woman's body. "Doctor, I'll get 'em!"

"Be careful!" He leapt onto the stage and helped Rey up after. "Did it say anything? Could it speak? This is Rey, by the way, and I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor? You look more like a navy."

"What's wrong with this jumper?"

"We have bigger things to worry about," Rey said. The blue apparition circled the room before diving into one of the gas lamps and disappearing. "Does that mean it's made out of gas?"

"I think that's a safe bet, yeah." The Doctor examined the lamp. As far as she could tell, it was completely ordinary if not in need of a cleaning. "What's taking Rose so long? This is why I didn't—" He stopped himself. Spoilers, she guessed. From the way the Doctor's face scrunched, that was a safe bet.

They checked outside, arriving just in time to see the woman half of the duo finish tucking Rose's unconscious body into the back of a hearse. They ran after it, but the carriage was already pulling out onto the street. There was no way they'd catch it on foot.

The performer followed as they deliberated, still convinced they were responsible. "What do you know about that hobgoblin, hm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?"

"Yeah, mate. Not now, thanks," the Doctor said dismissively. "Oi, you! Follow that hearse," he yelled to the driver of the only nearby coach before jumping in.

The performer, predictably, protested, yelling that they couldn't just take the carriage.

"Why not," Rey asked, climbing in as well.

"Why not?! I'll give you a very good reason why not! This is my coach!"

"Well, get in then!" The Doctor reached over her and pulled him inside.

"Go, please," Rey called to the driver. Surprisingly, he complied.

"Everything in order, Mr. Dickens?"

"No! It is not!"

"What did he say," the Doctor asked.

"He called him Mr. Dickens," Rey answered.

"Let me say this first. I'm not without a sense of humour—"

"Dickens?"

"Yes," the man replied.

"Charles Dickens," she elaborated.

"Yes."

" _The_ Charles Dickens," the Doctor clarified.

"Shall I remove the gentleman and the miss, sir," the driver asked.

"Charles Dickens! You're brilliant, you are! Completely one hundred percent brilliant! I've read 'em all! Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and what's the other one, the one with the ghost?"

"A Christmas Carol?"

"No, no, no, the one with the trains…"

"The Signal Man," she supplied amicably. Dickens would never beat Christie in Rey's heart, but she was excited nonetheless. And familiar with his works. For whatever reason, Dr. Usher was more willing to let her read Dickens than Christie.

"That's it, terrifying! The best short story ever written. You're a genius!"

Charles looked very pleased with himself. "Er, no, I think they can stay," he decided.

"Honestly, Charles—can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan."

"… What? A what?"

"Fan! Number one fan, that's me," he gushed. Rey's chest felt lighter than since before she appeared in the TARDIS. It was fun to see the Doctor, any Doctor, filled with such childish awe at something that wasn't trying to kill them for once.

"How exactly are you a fan? In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?"

"Fan is short for fanatic," she explained. "He's calling himself a great admirer."

"Mind you, I've gotta say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what was that about? Was that just padding or what? I mean, it's rubbish, that bit."

"I thought you were my fan," Charles grumbled.

"Ah, well, if you can't take criticism… Go on, do the death of Little Nell, it cracks me up." The Doctor caught sight of her face and the single eyebrow she had raised. "No, sorry, come on, faster!"

"Who exactly is in that hearse," Charles finally asked.

"Our friend. She's only nineteen, and it's my fault. She's in my care, and now she's in danger."

"Why are we wasting my time talking about dry old books? This is much more important. Driver! Be swift! The chase is on!"

"Thatta boy, Charlie," the Doctor cheered.

"Nobody calls me Charlie," Charles protested.

"The ladies do."

"How do you know that?"

"I told you—I'm your number one—"

"Number one fan, yes…"

The Doctor, who was sitting next to Charles, reoriented himself to face Rey. She had moved to sit on the bench across from them to maximize space. For once, she was glad for her shorter stature since it meant she didn't need to slouch or tilt her head awkwardly. "That reminds me. Rey, don't suppose you've met Rose before?"

"Not before today. Why?"

"You're the one who insisted we bring her along when we first met her," he said tersely.

She blinked, wondering what the future her was up to. Why would she do that? It wasn't her choice who the Doctor traveled with, or if he had a companion at all. Not that having Rose around was a hardship, no matter how icy she seemed to react to her. And the Doctor had clearly warmed up to her. "Do we get along?"

"Well…"

"Have we been together long, then?"

"Who? Me and you? Or us and Rose?"

"Either or. Unless it's a spoiler. You did—will—warn me about those."

"Spoilers, huh." A look of distaste crossed his face. It was similar to how his next regeneration would look when he said that word.

"What is it?"

"Usually it's you warning me against those." How much older was she usually when she was around this Doctor? She still felt too new at this to be warning him about anything other than a few jokes.

Charles kept glancing back and forth from each of them, looking utterly lost. She wanted to commiserate because really, he didn't know the half of it, and neither did she.

"Is that bad?" It must've been annoying to be constantly told you didn't know enough, or weren't allowed to know yet.

"Nah." The Doctor grinned. Rey felt a weight lighten from her shoulders. She hadn't realized how tense she'd gotten in anticipation. "Makes things more exciting that way."

"Christmas with Charles Dickens and ghosts." Donna would have a field day. And she supposed this explained the Doctor's considering look when she sarcastically brought it up.

He laughed. "I know!"

They found the hearse parked outside the Sneed and Company Funeral House. She supposed they were lucky Rose's kidnappers hadn't used a more inconspicuous car. Or that there weren't more residences nearby. Charles knocked, since he was both the most likely to get an answer and the least suspect. The young woman from earlier, Gwyneth, answered the door. "I'm sorry, sir, we're closed."

Charles huffed. "Nonsense! Since when did an undertaker keep office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master."

"He's not in, sir." She moved to shut the door but he forced it back open.

"Don't lie to me, child!"

"I'm awfully sorry, Mr. Dickens, but the master's indisposed." The gas lamp behind her suddenly flared up.

"Having trouble with your gas," the Doctor asked.

"What the Shakespeare is going on?"

Gwyneth called after him as the Doctor shouldered his way in and pressed his ear to one of the inside walls. Rey followed but stood back to watched. She had no idea what he was listening for, or even if it was within the range of human hearing.

"There's something inside the walls. The gas pipes. Something's living inside the gas."

"Is it what's animating the bodies," she asked.

"Most likely."

"Let me out," they heard Rose scream from further inside. "Open the door!"

The Doctor took off after the shouts. Like some weird game of tag, Rey was right on his heels with Charles behind her and Gwyneth behind him.

"Please, let me out!"

They charged past the other man from the theatre, the eponymous Sneed. "This is my house," he yelled after them and was completely ignored. "I told you!"

Rose was locked inside the Chapel of Rest near the very back of the building. The door shook as she pounded on it frantically. "Let me out! Somebody, open the door! Open the door!"

The Doctor didn't even bother with the sonic; he kicked the door open, busting the frame. Along with Rose, there were two other bodies inside. One the old woman from earlier, and the other a younger man whose hand was clamped over Rose's mouth. "I think this is my dance," he said as he pulled her out of the dead man's hold.

"It's a prank," Charles claimed. "It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence."

"We really aren't," Rey said stiffly. "This is real. The dead are walking." She repeated it like a mantra to herself. _It's real, it's real, it's real. This isn't a dream._

Rose greeted the Doctor tearfully. She took Charles's presence well enough, but Rey supposed it was hard to be shocked after having been attacked by zombies. Speaking of, the Doctor addressed them directly, introducing himself, and asking who they were and what they wanted.

The man's reply was confusing to say the least. It set her on edge for reasons she couldn't quite place. "We're falling. Open the rift, we're dying. Trapped in this form—cannot sustain—help us."

Both he and the woman raised their faces to the ceiling. It was like the scene in the theatre was replaying before their eyes. Their mouths opened and blue gas escaped. This time a wailing could be heard before the gas disappeared into the lamps. The corpses, with nothing to animate them, crumpled to the ground.

"That was unexpected," Rey commented. "They're sort of rubbish zombies, aren't they?"

"I'll say," the Doctor agreed.

Later, Gwyneth served them all tea as they settled as well as they could in the parlour. Rose was having a go at Sneed for knocking her out, kidnapping her, and dumping her in the Chapel of Rest with the bodies. It amused the Doctor plenty, but Rey was more focused on her cup than the conversation.

Well, not really the cup. Its design was simple and plain, but she focused on the little things. The dip in the side right below the handle, the light scratches that could just barely be seen when the light flickered the right way, how much of the warmth of its liquid contents it radiated. It wasn't perfect, and that was what made it feel real.

Sneed started complaining about the house, blaming it as the reason the dead were reanimating. Charles was still in denial and insisted it was all an illusion. She wished he would stop. He could go on not believing for the rest of his life for all she cared, so long as he would stop saying it out loud.

"If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time," the Doctor said dismissively. "Just shut up." He asked about the gas next.

"That's new, sir," Sneed said. "Never seen anything like that."

"Means it's getting stronger, the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through."

"What's the rift," Rose asked.

"A weak point in time and space. The connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time."

Rey thought back to Avery's ship in the 17th century and the fiasco with the Siren. That had happened because of a weak point as well. Hopefully, this situation could be resolved without nearly as close of a call and before that many people were lost.

"That's how I got the house so cheap," Sneed explained as Charles snuck away from the table. "Stories going back generations. Echoes in the dark. Queer songs in the air and this feeling like a… shadow. Passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect for a gloomy old trade like mine."

The Doctor decided he wanted another look at the lamps and the chapel. To Rey, it sounded like code for him wanting to bully Charles into accepting the truth some more. She let him be and collected the cups instead. Gwyneth was in the kitchen lighting a lamp when she dropped them off in the sink.

Surprisingly, Rose had come with her. She expected the other girl to want to stick with the Doctor, especially when it was apparent she didn't really like Rey.

"Please, Miss," Gwyneth protested when the girls started washing up. "You shouldn't be helping! It's not right!"

"Don't be daft. Sneed works you to death," Rose said. "How much do you get paid?"

Rey kept quiet and focused on drying the silverware. It was just her own insecurities talking, but she was overly conscious of making a mistake in front of Rose. The other girl probably wouldn't antagonize her for it—hostility aside, Rose wasn't _mean_ —but Rey would feel judged and like she'd failed at something. It was a character flaw she should probably work on. One of many according to Dr. Usher, along with compulsive disobedience and an rampant imagination that bordered psychosis.

"Eight pound a year, miss."

Mentally calculating the conversion helped to calm her a little. Factoring in inflation, Gwyneth's salary was a little less than six hundred pounds in Rose's time.

"That much?"

Missing the sarcasm in Rose's question, Gwyneth nodded. "I know. I would've been happy with six."

"So, did you go to school or what?"

"Rose," Rey began, intending to change the subject. It was nice that she was trying to get to know Gwyneth, but she was trying to do it without adjusting properly for the time period. Her experiences were very solidly late-20th/early-21st century. If traveling with the Doctor taught Rey anything, it was that a person couldn't apply one framework to the entire universe.

"Of course I did. What do you think I am? An urchin? I went every Sunday. Nice and proper."

"What—once a week?"

"We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second."

"Me too," Rose admitted.

They both laughed, and just like that the tension passed. Rey looked back and forth subtly between them. If it was her, things definitely would've taken a turn for the worse. How was Rose able to charm Gwyneth so easily?

"What about you miss?"

She hesitated, not wanting to admit she had never been. Normal people went to school. Normal people didn't like school… right? But Rey loved reading and learning new things. When she was younger, and still now sometimes, she had wanted to attend school so badly she would give a limb or an organ to go. Lying didn't sit right with her, but telling the truth would drastically shift the tone of the conversation. She settled for a noncommittal shrug, hating herself a little for not being brave enough to say anything.

This was her problem. Where the Doctor was charismatic and Rose was personable, Rey floundered. For all she knew people, she couldn't connect with them or make them like her. Instead, she came off as haughty at best, and terrible offensive as usual.

"Don't tell anyone." Gwyneth lowered her voice like she was imparting a great secret to them. "But one week, I didn't go and ran on the heath all on my own!"

"I did plenty of that," Rose admitted shamelessly. "I used to go down the shops with my mate Shareen. And we used to go and look at boys!"

Gwyneth stopped laughing abruptly. She looked scandalized. "Well, I don't know much about that, miss."

"Come on, times haven't changed that much! I bet you've done the same."

"I don't think so, miss."

"There isn't anyone you fancy," Rey nudged. "Even just a little bit?"

Gwyneth bit her lip. "I suppose," she began reluctantly. "There is one lad… the butcher's boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him!"

"Oh, I like a nice smile," Rose agreed. "Good smile, nice bum."

"Well, I never heard the like!"

This was new. Rey had never done this before: talk about boys with a group of girls. It was nice so long as she pushed down the overly self-reflective part of her. The nerves weren't too bad, and she wondered if this was what it was like to show up for a test you hadn't studied for. "You could offer him a cup of tea the next time he comes by," she suggested.

Too entertained to be mad, Rose nodded in agreement.

"I swear it is the strangest thing, miss. You've got all the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like some sort of wild thing."

Rose shrugged. "Maybe I am. Maybe that's a good thing. You need a bit more in your life than Mr. Sneed."

"Ah, now that's not fair. He's not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to me to take me in. Because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Rey bowed her head at her.

Gwyneth thanked her with a soft smile. "But I'll be with them again, one day. Sitting with them in paradise. I should be so blessed. They're waiting for me. Maybe your dad's up there waiting for you too, miss."

"Maybe," Rose agreed then paused. "Um, who told you he was dead?"

She quickly turned back to the sink, trying to busy herself with taking over the washing. "I don't know, must've been the Doctor."

Rose refused to let the subject drop. "My father died years back."

"You've been thinking about him lately, more than ever."

"I s'pose so… How do you know all this?"

"Mr. Sneed says I think too much. I'm all alone down here. I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you?"

"No, no servants where I'm from."

"Me neither," Rey added.

"And you've both come such a long way, Miss Rey especially."

She looked at her consideringly. Gwyneth was scared of the words coming out of her mouth, but she also looked like she couldn't help it. "Why would you say that?"

"You're from London. I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about. Half naked, for shame. And the noise… and the metal boxes racing past… and the birds in the sky… they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People flying. And you—you've flown so far, further than anyone! The things you've seen… the darkness… the big bad wolf—"

Gwyneth suddenly cut herself off. She had been staring intently at Rose the entire time she spoke, until her gaze shifted to Rey. It was unnerving to be held under that stare. Forceful, but not all there at the same time, like Gwyneth was looking at her and beyond her all at once. Rey had been told she saw things that others couldn't before, but never like this. She blinked and reared back suddenly, very afraid. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, miss!"

Rey tried to assure her, pushing past her own unsteadiness.

"I can't help it… Ever since I was a little girl. My mum said I had the sight. She told me to hide it!"

"But it's getting stronger," the Doctor said, startling all of them. No one had seen or heard him enter the room. "More powerful, is that right?"

"All the time, sir. Every night. Voices in my head."

"You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key."

Gwyneth looked at him like he was the last hope she had. "I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table wrappers, all sorts."

"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do."

"Are you serious," Rey asked, realizing what he was planning.

"Deadly," he joked with a wink.

"What to do where, sir? Miss?"

"We're going to have a séance," the Doctor declared. He gestured for them to follow and led the way back to the parlour where they sat around a circular table. Charles and Sneed were already there waiting. Both men looked like he couldn't believe what he'd just agreed to, but in completely opposite ways.

"This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists," Gwyneth prefaced when she was ready. "Down in Midtown. Come. We must all join hands."

Charles stood up. "I can't take part in this."

"Humbug? Come on, open mind," the Doctor told him.

"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I try it unmask. Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

"Don't take your frustrations out on her," Rey scolded. "It's alright if you're scared but there's no need to be rude."

The Doctor saw the opportunity and took it. "I love a happy medium."

Rose let out a sharp laugh. "I can't believe you just said that."

"Sit. We might need you." Reluctantly, Charles took a seat once more. "Good man," the Doctor said. "Now, Gwyneth. Reach out."

"Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits?"

Rey would say that the séance was a success of sorts. After a slow start, Gwyneth succeeded in reaching out to the gas creatures. Through her, they managed to materialize and plead their case directly. They called themselves the Gelth and claimed to be victims of the Time War. Somehow the universe had rebelled against them and they'd lost their physical forms. Now they wanted to use human corpses to sustain themselves.

And that was where the not so successful part of the séance occurred. Rose was vehemently against it. The Doctor, guilt-stricken, wanted to do anything he could to help. They were still at a stalemate when the link broke. Charles was useless, too mystified by having his worldview radically changed, and Mr. Sneed was just confused. The amount of energy she used to keep the connection open as long as possible had left Gwyneth near death. Rose nursed her carefully while she and the Doctor still debated the pros and cons of helping the Gelth.

"Well, what did you say, Doctor," Sneed asked. "Explain it again. What are they?"

"Aliens."

"Like… foreigners, you mean?"

Rey suppressed a sigh. This was their third time going over it. Her head hurt, it felt like her brain was refusing to process something her senses had taken in. This had happened before, countless times, and it was part of the reason she had been kept in the hospital for so long. If she couldn't handle the limited, controlled sensory input from the hospital, Dr. Usher put forth, how was she expected to survive in the uncontrollable outside world?

"You can think of them that way if it helps. Foreigners from there." She pointed up.

"Brecon?"

"Close," the Doctor said, giving up on getting him to understand the concept of extraterrestrials. "They've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff, but the road's clocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long. Then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes."

"Which is why they need the girl," Charles concluded.

Rose wiped Gwyneth's forehead gently with a damp cloth. "They're not having her."

"But she can help," the Doctor argued. "Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through."

Charles was still caught up in the concept of it all. "Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers."

"Good system. It might work," the Doctor said.

"You can't let them run around inside dead people!"

Rey mumbled an excuse about getting some more water and fled the room. Rather than head to the kitchen, she wandered further in the funeral house. It was quieter there; the sound didn't carry as well, probably to give the illusion of privacy to grieving families. It was colder as well, to better preserve the bodies. She felt frozen to the bone, like she was trapped beneath a sheet of ice, lake water quickly filling her lungs.

She wanted quiet, but not like this. Not a quiet that could be mistaken for death.

When she came back, the conversation had stopped. She left the water by Rose, who was still fussing over Gwyneth, then moved back to stand by the Doctor, apart from the others. "Did you see something?" His voice was soft and soothing, nearly a whisper so that they wouldn't be overheard.

"Is that what we're calling it?" Her voice was harsh and bitter. "My… abnormality."

He frowned. "Well we're not calling it _that_. What's wrong with calling it seeing? It's what you do—see the things that other people miss. Where ordinary people see something they think is wrong or simple, you see it for what it actually is."

"Generally, seeing things that others don't is indicative of mental illness." She had to force the last two words out. They tasted like ash in her mouth. "I'm a freak." Maybe that was why Rose didn't like her—she could feel the wrongness coming off Rey and knew to avoid it. It was why the nurses didn't like her; she unnerved them. Knew too much, but didn't know enough to keep quiet. Maybe her parents were the same. Wasn't that why she was at the Institute? Because something was wrong with her.

"You see the universe differently," the Doctor said gently. Gentleness was weird on this Doctor. This one was gruff and rough around the edges like a porcupine. Everything from his face to his clothes exuded a desire for distance. Everything except his actions. Like now, when he knew not to touch her but still stood close enough she could feel the heat from his body, slowly melting the ice in her lungs and reminding her that she wasn't alone. "That's not wrong."

"You're going to help them, aren't you?" She didn't even have to ask. Of course the Doctor would help the Gelth—even without the guilt he was just that sort of person. He'd loan them the bodies, bring them to a planet of their own where they could build bodies of their own and reestablish their civilization.

"You think I shouldn't." There was a note of disappointment in his voice, but none of the angry dismissal she heard him speak with earlier.

"It doesn't matter what I think." He would still do whatever he wanted.

"It matters to me."

She chanced a look to his face. Not his eyes, she couldn't handle eyes right now. She took in his expression, the furrowed brow, the lips thinned in a line, the glint of concern. "I don't know what it was. Maybe the words they used, or the tone they said them with. Maybe it was a flicker in their faces when the light shifted just so…" Sometimes, she wished she could crack her head open and show people what was inside, just show them what she knew but didn't have the words for to explain. "I saw something, and it felt like… like they were lying."

"You think they were lying about needing help?"

"No. That part was real."

"Which part then?" He was patient with her. Not demanding, but asking. He wasn't dismissing her unsupported claims outright, but asking for clarification. No one had ever reacted this way when she told them what she saw. If they didn't get angry, then they were too interested. They were like Dr. Usher and the doctors before him, wanting to pick and prod at her mind to see what made her tick.

Gwyneth woke before she could reply. Pale, shaking, and so determined, she told them that she was going to help her angels, and there was no trying to convince her otherwise. Rose trailed after her, still worried and trying to talk her out of it. She shot them both pleading looks to change their minds.

"You don't have to do anything," Rey told her. She wished that Gwyneth would at least wait until she was feeling better.

"They've been singing to me since I was a child. Sent by my mum on a holy mission. So tell me."

The Doctor smiled at her bravery. "We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mr. Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?"

He paled. "That would be the morgue.

"No chance you were gonna say 'gazebo', was there," Rose asked rhetorically.

The Doctor led the way down. It was freezing in the stone room, excellent for preserving bodies but terrible for comfort. The closer they got, the heavier the dread in Rey's stomach seemed to grow. She hoped they weren't making a grave mistake,

"The thing is, Doctor, the Gelth don't succeed. 'Cos I know they don't. I know for a fact there weren't corpses walking around in 1869."

He gave Rey a look as if to ask if she wanted to be the one to explain. "Time is in flux," she said. She'd gone over the topic at length with the Doctor. By this point, she was confident she understood at least the basic constructs of time. "And time can be rewritten. History changes all the time. It goes mostly unnoticed because the accounts and people's memories of the events change too."

"Doctor, Miss Rey, I think the room is getting colder," Charles observed.

"Here they come."

The Gelth flooded the room in the next moment. "You have come to help!" Their leader hovered in the archway and spoke with a child's voice. "Praise the Doctor! Praise him!"

"Promise you won't hurt her," he demanded.

"Hurry! Please. So little time. Pity the Gelth."

"We'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, alright?"

It bothered Rey that they didn't answer. Not to this question, or any agreement that Gwyneth would be alright. But Gwyneth herself didn't seem to care. "My angels. I can help them live."

"Okay, where's the weak point," the Doctor asked.

"Here. Beneath the arch."

She positioned herself appropriately. At the last second, Rose rushed over to her, desperate. "You don't have to do this."

With a smile on her face, Gwyneth cupped Rose's cheeks. "My angels," she said simply, and pushed her back.

"Establish the bridge," the Gelth said—no, ordered. "Reach out of the void, let us through!"

"Yes. I can see you! I can see you! Come!"

"Bridgehead establishing."

"Come! Come to me! Come to this world, poor lost souls!"

"It is begun! The bridge is made!" Gwyneth's mouth opened and the Gelth began pouring out of her. "She has given herself to the Gelth!"

"There's rather a lot of them, eh," Charles remarked, trying and failing to remain lighthearted.

"The bridge is open. We descend." The Gelth leader, once cast in blue, now turned a bright, demonic red. "The Gelth will come through in force."

"You said there were only a few of you left!" Rey had to shout to be heard over all the noise.

"A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses." One by one the bodies in the morgue began to rise.

"Gwyneth… stop this! Listen to your master! This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, leave these things alone. I beg you—"

"Mr. Sneed! Get back!"

Rose's warning came too late. One of the corpses grabbed him and held him steady while another of the Gelth forced its way down his throat and into his body. Rey felt the Doctor tug her back as the former Mr. Sneed looked up at them with the blank, glassy-eyed stare of a dead man.

"I think it's gone a bit wrong," he said.

"More than a bit, I think," she added.

Sneed's body spoke. "I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come. March with us!"

"We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead."

The corpses quickly began to surround Rey, the Doctor, and Rose. She spared a thought that they wouldn't have such a big problem if Sneed's business hadn't been doing so well before her back hit the iron door. It led to a small, enclosed area that looked much like a dungeon. "Gwyneth, stop them," the Doctor called out, hoping to bring the girl back to her senses. "Send them back! Now!"

"Four more bodies," the leader counted. "Make them vessels for the Gelth."

Charles sputtered an apology and ran out. Seeing no better alternative, Rey pulled the Doctor and Rose with her through the dungeon door. She slammed it shut, locking the Gelth away, but also locking them inside with nowhere to run.

"Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."

"I trusted you! I pitied you!" The Doctor sounded so betrayed. He looked at the girls. "You tried to warn me…"

"We don't want your pity! We want this world and all its flesh." The door rattled as cold hands pulled at it.

"Not while I'm alive."

"Then live no more."

"Not your best comeback," Rey remarked, pressing herself as far back against the wall as possible.

"But I can't die." Rose looked to the Doctor for reassurance. "Tell me I can't! I haven't even been born yet, it's impossible for me to die! Isn't it?"

"I'm sorry," he told her.

"But it's 1869, how can I die now?"

"Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the 20th century and die in the 19th and it's all my fault. I brought you here."

She had to hand it to Rose; she wasn't one to back down. Even now Rose offered the Doctor a small grin despite their harrowing circumstances. "It's not your fault. I wanted to come."

"What about me? I saw the fall of Troy! World War Five! I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party, now I'm going to die in a dungeon! In Cardiff!"

Rey tried looking on the bright side. "I can finally stop worrying if this is real or not." Rose gave her a confused look. The Doctor—when had they started holding hands?—tightened his grip. "Though I have to agree. Of all the times and places I thought would be the end, this never made the list."

"It's not just dying. We'll become one of them," Rose reminded them grimly. "We'll go down fighting, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Together," Rey asked.

"Yeah!"

"I'm so glad I met you," the Doctor said.

Just as they were about to face their doom, Charles charged back into the morgue. "Doctor! Miss Rey! Turn _off_ the flame, turn _up_ the gas! Now! Fill the room, all of it, now!"

"What're you doing?"

"Turn it all on! Gas the place!" Through the bars of the dungeon door, they could see him run to the lamps, doing exactly what he was telling them to do.

The Doctor's expression transitioned from worried to confused to pleasantly surprised to hopeful. "Brilliant. Gas!"

"What, so we can choke to death instead," Rose asked.

"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous!"

"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!"

The corpses all abruptly abandoned their attempt to get through the dungeon door and turned on Dickens. "I hope… oh, Lord. I hope that this theory will be validated soon. If not immediately."

With the path cleared, the three ran back into the morgue. Rey spotted a gas canister in the corner, covered her mouth with the sleeve of her coat, and twisted the valve fully open. The stench of gas was nearly overwhelming. It sat heavy and bitter in her lungs as she ached for more air.

As Charles wished, there was soon enough gas in the room that the possessed corpses began screaming as the Gelth were pulled out of them.

"It's working."

"Gwyneth! Send them back," the Doctor urged her. "They lied. They're not angels."

She refused to believe him, convinced he was the one lying.

"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!"

"Can't… breathe," Rose choked out.

"Charles, get them out." He grabbed Rose's arm and beckoned Rey over. Ignoring him, she walked over to Gwyneth instead. The Gelth may have been banished from the bodies, but they were still flying around in the air. Still shrieking. The minute the gas shut off, they'd go right back to stealing lives.

"They're too strong."

"Remember the world you saw when you looked into Rose? None of those people, none of those miraculous things will exist unless you send the Gelth back through the rift."

"I can't send them back," Gwyneth told her. "But I can hold them here. Hold them in this place. Get out." Her hand slipped into the pocket of her apron. She pulled out a box of matches.

"You can't," Rose yelled.

"Leave this place," Gwyneth commanded.

The Doctor grabbed Rose by the shoulder. "Rose, get out, go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger, now go!"

Charles and Rose ran from the morgue, but Rey refused to leave. Gwyneth was shaking, just a little. Enough to show that she was scared. Rey couldn't just leave her. "I looked into you too."

"I know."

It was so hard to breathe now.

"You poor miss. The things they've done to you in that horrible place. All you wanted was to get away, and you tried, so many times. They called you fickle when they caught you. Never staying still, never staying in one place. Fickle like a stray black cat. But do you bring good luck or calamity?"

Rey tried to respond, but it was so hard when she kept coughing. The Doctor grabbed her arm. "Rey, please." She could see in his eyes that he knew what she did. There was no saving Gwyneth, she was long gone. "Go."

She ran and joined Charles and Rose on the snowy streets. The fresh air was a relief on her lungs, but the bitterness lingered in her mouth at the night's loss. Moments later, the entire house caught aflame. The Doctor dived out the front door just as it collapsed behind him. "She didn't make it," Rose realized sadly.

"I'm sorry. She closed the rift."

"At such a cost," Charles mourned. "The poor child."

"I did try, Rose, but Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes."

"What do you mean?"

"It was too much for her," Rey reasoned. "Opening the rift and being forced to hold it open overwhelmed her."

The Doctor nodded solemnly. "I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch."

"But… she can't have. She spoke to us. She helped us—she saved us. How could she have done that?"

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy," Charles said. "Even for you, Doctor."

"She saved the world," Rose insisted. "A servant girl. No one will ever know."

The stood for a few moments longer, just watching the house burn up. Eventually they couldn't stay, not with all the attention it was gathering. Charles was the only bright spot in an otherwise somber affair. He was reinvigorated, a changed man. Not that Rey could blame him. Change and the Doctor often came hand in hand. It was just such a shame that he was so close to his death.

Rose kissed his cheek as she bid him goodbye. He flushed, startled. "Oh, my dear— How modern. Thank you, but I don't understand—in what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"

"Everywhere," Rey told him. "Everywhen."

"You'll see." The Doctor gestured to the TARDIS behind them. "In the shed."

"In— in the box," he stuttered. "All three of you?"

"Down boy. See ya!"

After Rose retired to bed and Rey had changed into something more comfortable, she decided to stay in the console room with the Doctor. He was trying not to show it, but he was taking Gwyneth's death hard. Losing her alone would've been a hard blow, but, however tangentially, that the Time War had been involved only made things worse. To him, to this Doctor especially, it probably felt like the war never ended.

"Rey." She didn't understand the way he looked at her. A strange mixture of worry, sadness, and protectiveness. No one had ever looked at her like that before. "Have I taught you to fly the TARDIS yet?"

"I went looking for the manual but someone was frustrated and threw it in a collapsing star."

He had the audacity to look not the least bit remorseful. "Wonder who did that. Can't blame 'em though, that book…"

"Does this mean you'll teach me how to fly her," she asked hopefully.

He grinned and beckoned her over to the controls. "Show me what you know."

Brooding could wait, for both of them. She still had a few things to mull over herself, but she pushed those thoughts out of mind and hurried over to the console. "Zigzag plotter, handbrake, extractor fans, cloister bell, stabilizers…"


	6. Boom Town

**Guess who's not dead? This is way overdue guys, but in my defense, the last two months have been killer. Like, a major project, sickness, and two weddings intense. Hopefully this chapter helps make up for it? So without further ado:**

 **AKA In Which New Beginnings Are Like Eggs**

* * *

Jack was a lot of things. Sauvé. Swashbuckling. Sexy… and that was only the S's. He was also a people person. Oh, he liked them about as much as the next guy. As in, sometimes he loved people, sometimes he got sick of them, and most of the time he was ambivalent. But it wasn't his like or dislike of people that was up for consideration at the moment. It was his ability to read them.

He was a people person, and that meant he knew people. He got them. It was part of what made him an excellent agent for the parts of that unfortunate career path that he remembered. It was also what made him a better con man, because cons were generic. They had to be in order to work on more than one person. But an executed con was personal, which meant it needed to be tailored to the target. This was Jack's strength; his bread and butter.

Was being the operative word. He had never, not for a day in his life, gone straight, but he was trying to be one of the good guys now. If not good, then one of the decent ones at least. The Doctor, Rose, and Rey had turned his life upside down and inside out in the course of a single night, and he dared to say he was better for it.

Now if only he could figure them out.

Rose was the easiest. He didn't want to call her ordinary because Rose Tyler was far from ordinary, but she thought, reacted, and felt like an ordinary person. This wasn't a bad thing—it was actually nice. Jack was all for pleasant surprises and he liked to think he had a healthy amount of spontaneity in his life, but everyone could do with something comforting and familiar. For him, that was Rose. She got upset and cheered easily, made judgements and mistakes and learned and apologized. Actually, she was a better person by half than a lot of people Jack had met before.

The Doctor was a mystery. It wasn't just because he was an alien—Jack was a 51st century boy, and that meant his definition of people was pretty wide. He had met and charmed cyborgs, read people with no faces, conned people who claimed to have suppressed all emotion… But the Doctor was still infuriatingly enigmatic. Oh, sure, he was easy to read in the moment. He never made it a secret when he was angry or cross. For all his insistence on stoicism, his poker face was terrible. But Jack was never sure if the Doctor was being genuine or just performing.

And then there was Rey. Oh, where to begin with her? If the Doctor's poker face was bad, hers was masterful. With most people, it was what they didn't say and the reactions they tried to hide that spoke of what kind of person they were. But with Rey, what she didn't say or show was pretty much everything. It was all or nothing with her—either she meant everything that she said, or she meant none of it. Problem was, he couldn't reliably figure out which it was in the moment.

Her strange ability only added to the mystique. Jumping through time without a vortex manipulator, or a TARDIS he supposed, should've been impossible. It went against everything he gleamed about the Doctor for him to have just calmly accepted her quirk. Either Jack was very, very wrong about him—doubtful, but technically possibly—or the Doctor knew more than he was letting on.

It was all just… a little weird.

Jack was now an ex-Time Agent, an ex-con man, living in an actual TARDIS that contained at least one pocket dimension, and trying to be a better man. This whole time jumping thing was one step too far. He needed to figure it, Rey, and her strange relationships with the Doctor and Rose out. Preferably sooner than later.

* * *

Rey caught the Doctor alone this time, in between trips with Amy and Rory. He looked the worn out sort of tired that came from too much work and not enough sleep. How long did Time Lords have to stay awake before they started feeling the effects of sleep deprivation?

Rather than rest, he insisted she show off her new piloting skills. Rey thought about insisting on him taking a break, but she could read the heavy line of frustration across the Doctor's shoulders and the hard line of distress running down his spine. She wanted to ask, but she knew there was no point when the answer would just be that he couldn't tell her.

It felt mean to ask him anyway, because then she wouldn't have been asking for his sake. She would've been asking for her own, to make herself feel better. To have said "look, I did my part, it's not my fault you won't tell me," even though that would've been a lie.

Instead, she reminded him how she hadn't gotten to the actual flying part of her lesson. One thing had led to another, and she ended up jumping a few times before landing here. It was a relief to know that the Doctor never took to wearing decorative vegetables outside that one regeneration. Sure, he'd promised that it had been put in stasis, and she knew it was handy to keep around for its medicinal properties to Time Lords, but there was something about wearing a stalk of celery around, exposed to everything that just…

She shook her head. Nope, not for her. She wouldn't rather die, but she'd be very unhappy if she ever had to eat it.

He clearly didn't have the patience or concentration for a lesson right now, so he took her to a new planet instead. Carnivorous forest aside, it was one of the most peaceful places he'd ever taken her. He even packed a small picnic for them to enjoy under the double suns.

"It's a little weird," she said, mulling over the texture of the Kolorian tear cake on her tongue. It didn't really have a flavor of its own, but that wasn't why people ate it.

"What's weird?" The Doctor dipped a fish finger in his bowl of custard. "Good weird or bad weird?"

She cast to the other side of the meridian. It was night there, and the trees were growing out of the ocean and waving at them. "Neither, really. There's a book in the TARDIS library I keep coming across. Can books in there follow you?"

He shrugged. "That's new. Never been haunted by a book before. Had plenty re-shelve themselves before I was done with them, but a book wanting to be read? New territory. Which book?"

"I can't read it. The title's in…" The tingling distracted her momentarily. How did a person say "this was nice while it lasted" without sounding sarcastic or bitter?

Judging from his tight smile, the Doctor understood the sentiment entirely. "Off, then?" He made a show of pouting like it was no big deal.

"I'll see you soon," she told him, and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, she was standing in the middle of the Millennium Centre Square in Cardiff. She had a brief moment of déjà vu and a flash of uncanniness for having been to the same place twice in vastly different times. If she concentrated, she could overlap her memories of 1869 with the present like layers of a stage backdrop.

The TARDIS was conveniently parked to her left, near a silver water fountain that marked the middle of the square. Typically, people were walking past it without a second look. She was lucky to have landed in its shadow, masking her appearance from thin air.

A dark haired man popped his head out when she knocked. His expression instantly brightened when he saw her, and he immediately his arms around her bone crushingly tight, bending backwards to lift her off her feet.

White noise was echoing in Rey's head. This had literally never happened to her before. In fact, she nearly reacted and thought he was trying to restrain her before realizing that the assumption didn't match his smile.

She grunted as she was set back down, eyes wide and ready for something.

"Now, judging from your expression, I'd say you have no idea who I am. Captain Jack Harness. Please to meet you." He spoke with an American accent and gave her a cocky though proper salute. "And you, Miss Rey, are going to be very happy to see me in 1941."

"Spoilers," she chided automatically. She forced her body to relax. "Can I come in?"

He stepped aside, allowing her past and closing the door behind her. The Doctor and Rose were both in the console room, which answered her question as to when she was. With how chaotic their travels were, she'd taken to measuring herself against the Doctor's progression. He was her constant, not the year or planet. Just him, the TARDIS, and whichever companion was along for the ride.

"Rey!" He stopped fiddling with the controls to give her his full attention. "You've got leaves in your hair."

"A note for future reference: if a giant tree tries to eat you, a little less reasoning and a little more running goes a long way."

"He almost got you eaten," Jack asked.

"He was aiming for relaxing, but sleeping dogs, sleeping trees—the concept still applies. Are we in Cardiff to recharge?"

"Yeah. Help me out with this, will you?" The Doctor nodded to the gantries where he was attempting to do some rewiring.

"Yes, boss." She gave him a salute of her own, paired with a completely blank face.

Jack, for whatever reason, found this to be hilarious and cracked up beside her.

A red headlight sat on the console as if waiting for her. She strapped it on before climbing up the ladder to join the Doctor. He gestured for her to hold back some of the smaller wires so he could fiddle with the one acting up.

"Try that now, Rose."

She pulled a lever on the console and the lights in the walls brightened, flickered, and then sputtered back down.

"Not that one, then."

They went through the wires one by one, each of them having similar results. A few minutes later, there was another knock at the door. Jack answered it again, though this time he didn't sound very please. "Who the hell are you?"

"What d'you mean, who the hell am I," the unfamiliar voice asked back. "Who the hell are you?"

"Captain Jack Harkness. Whatever you're selling, we're not buying."

"Get out of my way!" A man, black with short hair not unlike the Doctor's, barged part into the TARDIS.

Jack shut the door behind him. "Don't tell me, this must be Mickey."

"Who's Mickey," she asked quietly.

"Rose's boyfriend. He's… alright." The Doctor looked like it physically pained him to admit those words. Then, louder and more cheerily, he said, "Here comes trouble. How're you doing, Ricky boy?"

"It's Mickey!"

"Don't listen to him, he's winding you up," Rose told him. They hugged tightly, clearly relieved to see each other again after what must have been a long apart.

Jack moved to lean against the ladder. "Aww, sweet. Look at these two. How come I never get any of that?"

"Buy us a drink first," the Doctor shot back, tucking the sonic back into his pocket.

"You're such hard work."

Rey climbed down first, pulling the headlight off and rubbing her forehead where a mark had been left. "I'd prefer dinner."

"At least Rey is definitely worth it." Jack winked and stood by her side. He didn't try to touch her again, which she was grateful for. As had been proven outside, her first instinct was still to associate sudden contact with the feel of rubber gloves, to cold hands holding her down, to a needle plunging into her flesh.

Of course, she wasn't always or completely against physical contact. Sometimes she even wanted or needed it, the way all social creatures did. It was easier to get used to the longer she was around a person. Layers helped. So did initiating the contact because then it was on her part and she was in charge. But sometimes, if it was too sudden or too rough, or if she was having a bad day, her mind would go blank and her skin would _yell_ at her to get away.

Jack was the skinship sort, liberal with touch and affection. She'd known him for all of ten minutes and she could tell. He wasn't all hands all the time, but he was the type who would put a hand on shoulders and arms as he passed, sit close and lean in, and go for a hug or a kiss rather than a high-five.

That being said, it made his consideration all the more thoughtful. Clearly, he had realized it at some point or another and was doing his best to curb his natural inclinations.

She hoped it was because they were friends. Rey didn't have much experience in making or having them. It obviously didn't come naturally to her. All she had to do was look to Rose to confirm that she was no good at it.

Mickey handed over her passport, which Rose brandished it like a ticket. "I can go anywhere now!"

"I told you—you don't _need_ a passport!"

"It's all very well going to Platform One and Justacia and the Glass Pyramid of San Kloom, but what if we end up in Brazil? I might need it. You see, I'm prepared for anything." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Sounds like you're staying then," Mickey noted glumly, leading to an awkward silence. Whatever his issues were, he tried not to let them bother him. Smiling forcibly, he changed the subject to ask why they were in Cardiff. "And who the hell's Jumping Jack Flash? I mean, I don't mind you hanging out with big-ears over there—"

"Oi!"

"Look in the mirror," he shot back. "And Rey's alright if a bit stoic—"

"Stoic," she repeated, glancing at Jack to see if he agreed.

"But this guy, I dunno, he's kinda…"

"Handsome," Jack offered.

"More like cheesy."

"Early 21st century slang—is cheesy good or bad?"

"I think mostly bad," she said.

"But bad means good, isn't that right?"

"Only if you're a bad boy."

He grinned at her.

The Doctor climbed down the ladder and stood on her other side. "Is he saying I'm not handsome?"

They all ignored him.

"We just stopped off," Rose said to Mickey. "We need to refuel. Thing is, Cardiff's got this rift running through the middle of the city. It's invisible, but it's like an earthquake fault between different dimensions."

"The rift was healed back in 1869…" the Doctor began.

Rose was quick to jump back in. "—thanks to a girl named Gwyneth, 'cos these creatures called the Gelth, they were using the rift as a gateway, but she saved the world and closed it."

"But closing a rift always leaves a scar," Jack added. "And that scar generates energy, harmless to the human race—"

"—but perfect for the TARDIS," the Doctor continued. "So just park it here for a couple of days right on top of the scar…"

"If you open up the engines so they can soak up the radiation," Rey said, because otherwise the TARDIS was pointlessly sitting atop it.

"Like filling her up with petrol and off we go," Rose interjected.

Jack gave her a high-five. "Into time!" Rose moved over to give one to the Doctor.

"And space," the group minus Mickey finished. He looked at them like they'd all grown second heads.

"My God, have you seen yourselves? You all think you're so clever, don't you?"

"Yeah," the Doctor said.

"Yeah," Rose echoed.

"Yep," Jack agreed.

"Not really," Rey deadpanned.

Mickey rolled his eyes and swatted Jack's had away when he gave him a friendly pat on the cheek before they filed out of the TARDIS one by one.

"Should take another twenty-four hours, which means we've got time to kill," the Doctor told them.

Mickey was worried about the looks they were getting.

"Probably wondering what five people could do inside a small wooden box," Rey suggested.

Jack chuckled and waggled his eyebrows. "Wonder if her imagination's as creative as ours."

"What are you captain of," Mickey asked. "The Innuendo Squad?"

Jack held up three fingers to make a "W" and held it up to his forehead.

"Wait! Er, the TARDIS—we can't just leave it, doesn't it get noticed?"

"Yeah, what's with the police box," Jack asked. "Why does it look like that?"

"It's a cloaking device," Rose said.

"It's called a chameleon circuit," the Doctor explained. "The TARDIS is meant to disguise itself wherever it lands, like if this was Ancient Rome it'd be a statue or an obelisk or something. But I landed in the 1960s, it disguised itself as a police box."

"And then he broke the circuit," Rey tacked on. He shot her an exaggerated look of betrayal.

"So it copied a real thing? There actually were police boxes?"

"Yeah, on the street corners. Phone for help before they had radios and mobiles. If they arrested someone, they could shove them inside until help came. Like a little prison cell."

"Why don't you just fix the circuit?" Jack leaned towards the Doctor and, since Rey was standing between them, towards her as well. She felt a little squashed since she was so much shorter than them.

Damned giants.

"It's kind of lame," she said with a straight face. "But mostly kind of wonderful."

The Doctor brightened. "I like it! Don't you?"

"I _love_ it," Rose stressed.

"But that's what I meant," Mickey insisted. "There's no police boxes anymore, so doesn't it get noticed?"

"Rickey, let me tell you something about the human race. You put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of town and what do they do?" The Doctor didn't give him a chance to answer. "Walk past it. Now stop nagging, let's go and explore!" He took Rey's gloved hand and walked off.

"You could always tell him about the perception filter," she suggested quietly while also trying to figure out how she felt about the sudden hand holding. His grip wasn't particularly tight. She could easily pull away if she wanted to, and he would let her go if she did. But it was also… nice.

"But where's the fun in that? Come on," he called back to the others. "Cardiff. Early 21st century. The wind's coming from the… east. Trust me—safest place in the universe."

They explored for a bit and shopped around at a few stores. The Doctor actually bought a silver chain at one of the centers while Rose modeled some clothes for Mickey. Rey bought a coat, having forgotten to grab one before leaving the TARDIS. Gloves were quickly becoming a staple of her outfits, but the rest of her was dressed for the tropics, not Cardiff. And she felt bad for taking the Doctor's jacket for too long.

They had lunch at a restaurant by the bay. It was surprisingly empty given how nice it was outside, but it was a pleasant surprise. The food was delicious and hardy, and Jack spent most of it entertaining them with stories of his own adventures. She had to hand it to him, he knew how to tell a story. Even Mickey was having a good time.

Across the room, an older man had finished eating and was now reading the paper. The Doctor's grin suddenly dropped as he caught sight the headline. He marched over and pulled it right out of the old man's hands, staring at the front page in dismay. "And I was having such a nice day," he complained, holding it up for them to see.

"New Mayor, New Cardiff," the paper read with a picture of a plump blonde woman underneath. Her face was mostly eclipsed by her blurred raised hand, but it was enough for the Doctor to recognize her.

"Who is she," Rey asked.

"What d'you mean, 'who is she,'" Rose asked. "Margaret the Slitheen? You were there when she and her family tried—" Her voice was muffled suddenly by the Doctor's hand.

"Spoilers?"

"Yup."

Rose threw the Doctor's hand down. "What gives?!"

"He was stopping you from telling me what happens."

"But it's already happened!"

"Not for me. I jump timetracks, remember? Foreknowledge is risky."

Rose glared, but quieted. Jack carefully remained relaxed. Mickey looked back and forth between them.

"What matters is that she's dangerous," the Doctor said, bringing them all back to focus on the problem at hand. "We need to stop her."

They abandoned the rest of their lunch and headed for Town Hall. Jack took point, fitting for his title. He made an effort to redact the information, given Rey's special case as he summed up the mission. "Okay, plan of attack: we assume a basic 57/56 strategy, covering all available exits on the ground floor. Doctor, you and Rey go face-to-face, that's designate Exit One. I'll cover Exit Two, Rose, you're Exit Three, Mickey Smith, you take Exit Four. Have you got that?"

Rey nodded. Rose's face was pulled as she tried to follow everything. Mickey looked plainly confused. The Doctor had his hands on his hips, seemingly mildly put off. "Excuse me. Who's in charge?"

"Sorry. Awaiting orders, sir."

"Right. Here's the plan." He paused, then grinned. "Like he said. Nice plan. Anything else?"

"Present arms," Jack ordered.

"Ready." They each pulled out a mobile. Rey, who didn't have one of her own, had a Bluetooth-like earpiece instead. It was connected to the TARDIS, which meant that it'd never lose a signal, but also that calls might get displaced in time.

"Speed dial?"

A cacophony of beeps filled the air as they each set the numbers up.

"See ya in hell," Jack bid with a cocky grin.

They broke apart, Rey and the Doctor taking the most direct route to the Mayor's office. He led the way, strolling down the halls with an easy smile. "Hello! I've come to see the Lord Mayor."

"Have you an appointment," the receptionist asked without looking up.

"Nope, just a couple of old friends passing by, bit of a surprise. Can't wait to see her face!"

"Well, she's just having a cup of tea."

"Just go in there, and tell her Rey and the Doctor would like to see her."

The young man eyed them carefully. "Doctor who? Rey what?"

"Just the Doctor and Rey," she said.

He stood, expression a strange mix of curiosity, boredom, and exasperation. "Hold a tick..."

For a second, Rey wondered what it was like to be a receptionist, and instantly decided that she wouldn't like it. Surrounded by drab walls and stuck to a desk all day—it felt too much like the hospital that it made her skin crawl.

No sooner had she come to her conclusion that the sound of shattering glass came from behind the closed door of the mayor's office. A loud scraping noise followed shortly after, like something with rusty hinges being forced to move. The receptionist was harried and flustered when he opened the door, blatantly attempting to use his body to hide the interior from their sight.

"The Lord Mayor says thank you for—popping by… she'd love to have a chat, but, um… she's up to her eyes in paperwork. Perhaps if you could make an appointment for next week…?"

"She's climbing out the window," Rey concluded from the sounds.

"Yes, she is."

They pushed past him and into the office just in time to see the mayor hop off the scaffolding through the open window. "Slitheen heading north," the Doctor reported to the others.

Rose and Jack replied back they were on their way. Rey climbed onto the railing of the balcony so she could follow after Margaret. "Leave the mayor alone," the receptionist yelled belatedly. He awkwardly grappled with the Doctor as he tried to follow.

"I'm going ahead," she told them, and slid off the edge. There was a moment of weightlessness before she landed on her feet in a crouch. Margaret was running just up ahead. "Hey!"

Margaret ran faster as Rey called out to her, and she wondered if there was something in her physiology making her so spry, or if it was just desperation pushing her on.

Rose blocked the first exit she made for. Margaret hissed before turning the other way only for Jack to head her off. When she turned to run back, Rey was waiting. They nearly had her boxed in if not for Mickey arriving late. In his absence, Margaret charged down the unblocked fourth route, pulling her earring off as she went.

Mickey and the Doctor caught up a few seconds later, in time to see Margaret run off down the street.

"Mickey the Idiot," the Doctor called him.

"Oh, be fair—she's not exactly gonna outrun us, is she," Rose asked.

"I don't see you blocking her way," Mickey shot back. "Rey's doing your work, again."

"Guys," Jack warned as Margaret disappeared in a blue light. "She's got a teleport. That's cheating!"

"It does make things trickier," Rey agreed.

Rose shot her a smug look. "Oh, the Doctor's very good with teleports."

He pulled out the sonic and held it up in the air. It whirred on, and Margaret reappeared in another flash of the same blue light, this time running towards them. The satisfied smirk on her face wiped away when she realized where she was.

Twirling around, she ran away and teleported again. The Doctor clicked the sonic for a second time and for a second time Margaret reappeared, a little closer this time until she teleported away for a third time. For a third time the Doctor brought her back until this time, she slowed to a stop in front of them, out of breath and exhausted.

"I could do this all day," he told her cheerily.

"This is persecution. Why can't you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?"

He clapped his hands over Rey's ears and answered. She stewed a little internally and resisted the urge to swat his warm hands away. Not for the first time, not even for the first time that day, she cursed their temporal incongruity.

Whatever he said, it must have been a good reply since Margaret didn't put up much of an argument after. They moved to the exhibit room so they could see what she was up to. It was also away from anyone who might get hurt if she tried to run.

"So you're a Slitheen, you're on Earth, you're trapped," the Doctor listed. "Your family get killed but you teleport out, just in the nick of time. You have no means of escape. What do you do? You build a nuclear power station." He gestured to the model set on the table in middle of the room. "But what for?"

"A philanthropic gesture. I've learned the error of my ways."

"So it's a coincidence that you've decided to build it right on top of the rift," Rey asked dryly.

"What rift would that be," Margaret asked, playing dumb.

"A rift in space and time," Jack told her. "If this power station went into meltdown, the entire planet would go schwwwupboom!"

So he was a sound effects sort of guy too. She could get behind that. His antics would have been funny, even, if not for… "If I'm reading this right, the station is set to go into meltdown the moment it reaches capacity."

She looked to the Doctor for confirmation.

"Didn't anyone notice?" Rose looked over at her strangely. "Isn't there someone in London _checking_ this sort of stuff? And how do _you_ know how to decipher nuclear blueprints?"

"I read?"

"We're in _Cardiff_ ," Margaret stressed. "London doesn't care! The South Wales coast could fall into the sea and they wouldn't notice—" She abruptly cut herself off and looked surprised. "Oh… I sound like a Welshman. God help me, I've gone native."

"But why would she _do_ that," Mickey asked. He made a good point. "A great big explosion—she'd only end up killing herself."

"She's got a name, you know."

"She's not even a she, she's a… thing," he shot back.

The Doctor eyed her carefully. "Oh, but she's clever…" He suddenly pried the middle section of the nuclear station model off and flipped it to reveal the futuristic circuit board underneath. "Fantastic."

"Is that a tribophysical waveform macrokinetic extrapolator," Jack asked excitedly.

"Couldn't have put it better myself."

"Oh, genius! You didn't build this."

Margaret preened and pretended to be modest. "I have my hobbies. A little tinkering…"

"No, no, no, I mean you really didn't build this. Way beyond you."

"I bet she stole it," Mickey wagered.

"It fell into my hands," she admitted.

"Is it a weapon," Rose asked.

Jack set it on the floor and stood on it like it was a skateboard. "It's transport. You see—the reactor blows, the rift opens, phenomenal cosmic disaster, but this thing here shrouds you, maybe a friend if you're lucky in a forcefield." He looked at Rey invitingly. She shrugged and stepped onto the board. It was a tight fit, but there was enough space for them to both stand without touching. Not something she'd be comfortable maintaining for a long period of time.

"You have this energy bubble—zzhum," Jack continued, waving his arm. "So you're safe. Then you feed it coordinates, stand on top, and ride the concussion all the way out of the solar system."

"It's a surfboard," Mickey realized with a bit of childish glee.

"A pan-dimensional surfboard," Rey elaborated as she stepped away.

"And it would've worked," Margaret said bitterly. "I would've surfed away from this dead-end dump and back to civilization."

"You would blow up an entire planet just to get a lift?"

"Like stepping on an anthill."

Rey decided she didn't like Margaret much.

The Doctor was oddly silent throughout the explanation. He seemed caught up in staring at the poster hanging on the far wall. It was just an ordinary poster, as far as she could tell, with the project's name emblazoned across it.

"How'd you think of the name," he asked Margaret.

"What, Cath Ddu? It's Welsh."

"I know, but how did you think of it?"

"A story of an abandoned town ravaged by the plague. I thought it fitting and it just sounded good. Does it matter?"

"What does it mean in English," Rey asked.

"Black Cat."

"Black cats are supposed to be good luck, aren't they," Mickey asked. "My gran used to say if they come to you it's good luck and it's bad if they walk away."

"I've always heard it the opposite," Jack said. "Black cats are bad luck, especially if they cross your path."

Rose looked spooked. "I've heard that before, Black Cat. And something else, another phrase… Bad Wolf—I've heard that lots of times…"

That caught Rey's attention. Bad Wolf—Gwyneth had said it in 1869, so ominously like it was a warning. The big bad wolf was a classic fairy tale antagonist, right up there with the wicked witch and the evil queen. She didn't know anything about any black cat though.

The Doctor looked grim. "Everywhere we go. Those words, following us."

"How can they be following us?"

He was deadly silent for a moment longer. Then, "Nah!" He shook his head and relaxed. "Just a coincidence! Like hearing a word on the radio then hearing it all day. Never mind! Things to do! Margaret, we're gonna take you home."

"Hold on, isn't that the easy option, like letting her go," Jack asked.

"I don't believe it," Rose cheered. "We actually get to go to Raxa… wait a minute! Raxacor…"

This time it was Jack who covered her ears. Her face refused to allow so much as an eyebrow to twitch, but he must've still been able to read her irritation since he looked sheepish. Rey got the impression that Jack through of her as a child. It was probably subconsciously, and it wasn't entirely baseless. She knew her shorter stature and childish face often got her mistaken for younger than she actually was.

It was just annoying, because no matter how she looked, Rey _was_ an adult. She didn't need coddling or babying, and she could make her own decisions.

 _Can you,_ a snide voice whispered in the back of her mind. It sounded a bit like Dr. Usher and she hated it for that alone. _Isn't the whole reason that they keep you at Nevermore is because you can't? Because you need to be minded. You need to be kept away from_ normal _people._

Cool air against her ears and the return of unmuffled sound brought her back to the present. Rey shelved her train of thought and blinked in confusion at the upbeat mood around the room.

"They have the death penalty," Margaret said with just the slightest waver beneath a mask of calm. It effectively cut the celebrations short. "The family Siltheen was tried in its absence many years ago and found guilty. With no chance of appeal. According to the statues of government, the moment I return I am to be executed. What do you make of that, Doctor? Rey? Take me home and you take me to my death."

"Not my problem," the Doctor told her plainly, and that was that.

They escorted Margaret to Millennium Square with a somber hush filling the spaces between them. The sun was already setting by the time they left Town Hall, and the curtain of night had fully fallen by the time they reached the TARDIS. An entirely different crown filled the streets.

Margaret looked around the console room in wonder and remarked about feeling much better for losing to the Doctor the first time around. Rey and Jack sat on the floor to examine the extrapolator. Even if she wasn't at the level where she could tinker with it herself, it was still fascinating just to watch him fiddle with it. It wasn't completely compatible with the TARDIS, but they were able to use it to cut the charging time by half.

Mickey was chuffed. "We've got a prisoner! The police box is really… a police box."

Of course, Margaret was never one to let an opportunity pass if she could try and take advantage of it. She passed the time taking any and every low blow she could, aiming to guilt them into letting her go. "You're not just police, though. Since you're taking me to my death, that makes you my executioners. Each and every one of you…"

"Well, you deserve it," Mickey told her coldly.

"You're very quick to say so. You're very quick to soak your hands in my blood. Which makes you better than me, how, exactly…? Long night ahead…" She wandered around the console slowly, locking eyes on each and every one of them. Mickey held her gaze for a few seconds before looking away. Rose glanced away even quicker with her guilt evident on her face. Both Jack's and the Doctor's yes were glued to his work in front of them.

She paused when she came to Rey, who looked straight at her with a blank expression. To be honest, she was a little conflicted, even if it didn't show. She hadn't been there when Margaret and her family did whatever terrible things they did, and while she was sure the woman probably deserved her fate, it was hard to pass judgment when all her information was cobbled together from loose parts and secondhand.

Margaret, however, took her impassiveness as a sign of feeling no remorse. "Ah, I should have known _you'd_ be fine with it."

"… Excuse me?"

"Oh, you're a stoic one, just like she said, but is it really stoicism, I wonder, or something… colder?"

She? Who was this she Margaret was talking about? "If you have something to say, please just come outright and say it."

Margaret tutted like she was scolding a child, complete with a little finger wag. "You see? My point exactly. What type of woman doesn't get upset when someone attacks their character, _Rey_. If that really is your name. You never answered my question last time, Rey what?"

What was wrong with just Rey? Why was everyone so gung-ho about her full name. "Margaret" wasn't even Margaret the Slitheen's actual name, it was the name of the person who she had killed and whose identity she stole. And yet, no one was making a big deal about calling her out on her namesake.

"I don't see why I should tell you since we'll be parting ways soon."

Margaret didn't reply, but gained a smug look like Rey had just proven her point. A tense silence filled the TARDIS, interrupted only by the sounds of Jack and the Doctor's work. Eventually, Mickey and Rose stepped outside for a private conversation.

Being the nosey alien that he was, the Doctor spied on them with the TARDIS monitor. There was no audio, and Rey had enough self-control not to watch them, but she did watch the Doctor. A strange look crossed his face, and it suddenly occurred to her that she didn't know how he felt about Rose. He'd said once that she was the one who insisted Rose travel with them.

Obviously, he had come around from any misgivings he might've had. Rey knew that Rose was his first companion in a long while. She was there for him in what was arguably the lowest point of his life having just come away from the Time War. Rose was everything Rey wasn't: normal, innocent, generous. She wore her heart on her sleeve and formed connections with people as easily as she breathed.

It was easy to care for Rose. And it was easy for her to see the Doctor caring for Rose as more than a simple traveling companion.

The idea stirred something in her gut.

"So, what's on?" Jack gestured to the monitor. He couldn't see it from where he was hunched over, but he could guess, and the answer was fairly obvious from the Doctor's expression.

"Nothing," he said quickly, dimming the display.

Margaret looked quickly between the three of them. "I gather it's not always like this… having to wait. I bet you're always the first to leave, Doctor. Never mind the consequences, off you go. You butchered my family and then ran for the stars, am I right? But not this time. At last, you have consequences… how does it feel?"

"I didn't butcher them."

"Don't answer back," Jack advised. "That's what she wants."

"I didn't!" Rey reached up and patted his knee. He calmed a bit under her hand. "What about you," he asked Margaret. "You had an emergency teleport, you didn't zap them to safety, did you?"

"It only carries one. I had to fly without coordinates. I ended up on a skip in the Isle of Dogs."

The Doctor and Jack snickered.

"It wasn't funny!"

"Sorry."

"It's a little funny," Rey said. The boys started laughing again and Margaret joined in this time.

"Do I get a last request?"

"Depends what it is," the Doctor said, serious again.

"I grew quite fond of my little human life. All those rituals… the brushing of the teeth, the complicated way they cook things… there's a little restaurant. Just 'round the bay. It became quite a favourite of mine."

"You want a final meal," Rey reasoned.

"Don't I have rights?"

"Oh, like she's not gonna try to escape," Jack pointed out.

"Except I can never escape the Doctor and his Rey, so where's the danger," Margaret shot back bitterly before challenging the Doctor. "But I wonder if you could do it? To sit with a creature you're about to kill and take supper. How strong is your stomach?"

"Strong enough," he assured her.

"I wonder. I've seen you fight your enemies… now dine with them."

"You won't change my mind."

"Prove it."

"The streets are full," Rey pointed out. This wasn't what she meant by a dinner date. "If she manages to slip away for even just a second…"

"Except, I've got these." Jack pulled out a pair of metal cuffs. They looked like bangles, or shackles with nothing linking them. "You both wear one. If she moves more than ten feet away…" He let out a loud buzz and pretended to have been electrocuted. "She gets zapped by ten thousand volts."

Rey didn't want to know why he had those cuff, or what he used them for. She really didn't.

"Margaret, would you like to come out to dinner," the Doctor asked sweetly. "My treat?"

"Dinner in bondage… works for me."

"What do you say?"

He looked to Rey, but she shook her head and stayed put on the ground. Being stuck in a crowded room while Margaret guilt tripped her for something she hadn't done yet was the last thing she felt like doing. Especially if anything remotely close to electric shocks were going to be involved.

At the same time, she didn't want the Doctor to go off on his own. Especially if he was going to be with someone they knew had no regard for life other than her own. And more selfishly, she didn't want to be apart from him for her own personal reasons. Her nerves wouldn't settle. She could feel her blood thrumming with anticipation. Her heart wouldn't calm no matter how many deep breaths she secretly took.

The ground felt like glass beneath her feet.

Something was going to go wrong soon. The what, when, and how escaped her. That wasn't anything new, just frustrating.

And yet, she still could bring herself to go.

Pathetic.

"I'll stay here with Jack. Dinner might not be… spoiler-free. And someone has to make sure he doesn't mess with your settings."

If the Doctor read the nervousness on her face, he didn't comment. "Alright then. We'll go to dinner, talk over drinks, and I'll be back before you know it." He grinned and she nodded, resigning herself to a night of paranoia. At least she'd be with Jack.

She lay on the ground nearby and watched his hands work with the wires under the console, connecting it to the extrapolator. It was mesmerizing. He explained everything he did in an easy voice, answered all her questions clearly, and wasn't afraid to admit when he didn't know something. All in all, he was a much better teacher than the Doctor. They conversed easily together, comfortable until Jack asked about her and the Doctor.

"There is no me and the Doctor," she said, confused. Was there some 51st century social implication she wasn't aware of?

"Really? Because when you're gone he never really shuts up about you. I'm just saying, that's gotta mean something, right? And it seemed to me that the only reason he didn't push for you to go out with him tonight is that he wanted you to stay safe. No mass murders trying to stage a jailbreak here."

"Just an ex-con trying his hand at psychology?" It was a little harsh, but he didn't take offense. Jack laughed, hearty and easy-going. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Okay, okay, new topic then." She could practically feel the shift in his tone. "Last time—well last time for me—you told me you met him after an earthquake." His hands stayed busy, picking at and separating wires.

Rey climbed out from under the console. "The ceiling collapsed. I was on an alien planet in the 42nd century when I opened my eyes."

"You said the building you were in was a hospital."

"It was." There was a wrench on the ground nearby. Rey rolled in under her palm. The friction and the feel of the grooves against her hand was grounding.

Jack followed her out from under the controls and sat up. "Why were you in the hospital?"

She froze. The wrench rolled away from her, giving out a loud _clink_ as it collided with some pliers. "They say I'm not well. Does it matter in what way?"

"Where's the hospital? What year? How long have you been there? How—"

"Please stop."

He did. Rey squeezed her eyes shut and let her hair fall like a curtain over her face. She couldn't stand the questions. "Just stop. Don't ask me anymore, I don't know. I don't want to think about it."

"Okay. Okay, I'm sorry. Rey, I'm sorry. I'll stop asking."

But she couldn't stop speaking. The words just kept tumbling out of her mouth. "I was in the psychiatric ward. I thought it a dream, and just when I started thinking it wasn't, I woke up and they told me that it was. They said the Doctor and you and all of this is just inside my head, and god, how I wish someone would just say to me 'this isn't a dream' once and for all so I can stop thinking 'I'm going to wake up now' every time I jump because this is insane, this is impossible and I can't— I can't— I can't breathe—"

She was having a panic attack. Jack was instantly by her side, alert and asking what to do. _Help me breathe_ , she wanted to say, but there was no air in the room. His mouth kept moving, but she couldn't follow what he was saying at all, not when her body was screaming at her with everything it had that she needed more air.

 _Argon. Arsenic. Astatine. Barium._

She tried to focus on his lips and the words they were forming. He was listing elements. Elements on the periodic table in alphabetic order.

 _Berkelium. Beryllium. Bismunth. Bohrium. Bromine. Cad—_

"… you forgot boron."

"That's because _boron_ is _boring._ "

She huffed incredulously, and the tension deflated all at once. She would've fallen over if it wasn't for Jack coming up behind her and pulling her into his arms. Shivers wracked her body, but it felt nice when he rubbed his hand along her upper arms. The touch was unfamiliar, but it was warm and she thought she might actually cry if it was taken away now.

"I haven't had one of those in a while," she said eventually.

"Sorry I gave you a panic attack."

"I used to get them a lot when I was younger, back when…" She trailed off.

"You don't have to say," Jack assured her. "I shouldn't have asked all those questions, I didn't mean to make you feel so cornered."

She shook her head. "All I remember is the hospital. The Madame said I could leave when I was better, but they never let me go. Don't tell the Doctor?"

She wasn't sure why she didn't want him to know, only that she very adamantly didn't.

"I won't," Jack reassured her, though he didn't look very happy about it. He held her until she moved to pull away, letting her go easily when she did. Then they went back to the extrapolator, not speaking a word of what had happened. She didn't ask him any more questions, but he kept explaining his work like the last thirt minutes never happened.

Finally, the board flashed green to signal it was properly connected. He moved as if to hug her in celebration, but caught himself and settled with giving her a huge grin instead.

She managed a small twitch of her lips back before the TARDIS started humming very loudly.

"What's wrong?" She had to shout to be heard as the humming increased in volume.

Jack frowned and reached the console.

"No, wait!"

Rey had been in the TARDIS while it malfunctioned enough times to know what was coming next. She grabbed his wrist and jerked him back just as the controls exploded. They fell back hard, but uninjured. The console sparked wildly and the lights on the extrapolator, still connected to it, flashed madly.

"That's not very good."

Jack ran to it and started ripping out wires. Rey went to help, but the ground began to shake. She froze.

 _The lights going out. Chunks of the ceiling coming down. No way out._

No. Rey wasn't in the hospital. She wasn't trapped.

The overhead lights flickered as the Doctor and Margaret ran through the doors. He went to her immediately, and she could only imagine how terrible she looked to have caused that expression on his face. "You're fine, Rey. You're here, with me, in the TARDIS. What the hell are you doing," he asked Jack

"It just went crazy!"

Rey wanted to tell him that it wasn't Jack's fault. She wanted to assure him he didn't need to bother with her. There were more important matters for him to concern himself with. But it was like her body had forgotten how to speak, and all she could do was point for him to help Jack.

Luckily, he got the message. After a split second of hesitation, he ran to the controls, ignoring the small explosions. "It's the rift! Time and space are ripping apart. The whole city's gonna disappear!"

"It's the extrapolator," Jack shouted, pulling out the last wire and checking the monitor. He joined the Doctor at the console, working frantically. "I've disconnected it but it's still feeding off the engines! It's using the TARDIS—I can't get it to stop.

"What did you do," Rey asked Margaret, finally gaining enough sense to talk.

"Never mind Cardiff, it's gonna rip open the planet!"

Rose burst through the doors. "What is it? What's happening?"

Margaret had her before any of them could react. One arm was free of its disguise, and the real thing was green, bulbous, and definitely alien. Her nails were more like claws, ready to slash open Rose's throat with the slightest twitch. She forced Rose to walk in front of her as she moved closer. "I've had you bleating all night, poor baby, now shut it. You—timegirl—put the extrapolator at my feet."

When she hesitated, Margaret tightened her claw around Rose.

She threw the board at the other woman.

"Thank you. Just as I planned."

"I thought you needed to blow up the nuclear power station," Rose managed to choke out despite the grip.

"Failing that, if I were to be… arrested… then anyone capable of tracking me down would have considerable technology of their own. Therefore, they would be captivated by the extrapolator. Especially a magpie mind like yours, Doctor. So the extrapolator was programmed to go to Plan B!" She tugged harshly on one of Rose's braids. "To lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the rift. And what a power source it found… I'm back on schedule, thanks to you."

"The rift's gonna convulse," Jack warned them. "She'll destroy the whole planet."

"And you with it!" She shoved Rose to the side so she could step onto the extrapolator. Her claw stayed around Rose's neck, keeping her hostage close. "While I ride this board over the crest of the inferno all the way to freedom. Stand back people… surf's up."

No matter what she went through in all their adventures, Rey had never seen the TARDIS properly break. But now one of the console panels directly in front of Margaret cracked open. A blinding light burst out, golden white and nearly blinding. It was mesmerizing, and as impossible as it sounded, it was almost like the light was singing.

It was also immensely painful to look at. Rey couldn't take her eyes off it, even as her head began to throb and pound. A sharp ache raced through her skull, like something was drilling through it. It felt like her head was going to explode with how much it hurt.

"Of course, opening the rift means you'll pull this ship apart," the Doctor said. His voice was so far away and he sounded strangely calm.

She started to feel tingling in her feet.

"So sue me," Margaret replied.

"It's not just any old power source. It's the TARDIS. My TARDIS. The best ship in the universe."

"It'll make wonderful scrap."

"What's that light," Rose asked. _And please shut it off_ , Rey wanted to add.

"The heart of the TARDIS. This ship's alive. You've opened its soul."

The singing was so loud, it threatened to drown out everything else. There were no individual sounds, just a continuous noise. When Rey tried to push it out, circular symbols appeared in her head. She'd seen ones like them before, in random places around the TARDIS, on the cover of the book that kept following her around. It was the only language the TARDIS would never translate because it didn't need to.

"It's… so bright…"

She could barely hear Margaret's dreamy words. The tingling spread up from her toes to her legs. Rey felt like she was about to jump.

"Look at it, Margaret…"

"…Beautiful…"

"Look inside, Blon Fel Fotch. Look at the light."

Margaret released Rose, who stumbled away and over to Jack. She stayed staring at the TARDIS's heart, listening to the singing the others couldn't hear. A genuine, content smile broke out across her face.

"Thank you…"

The light engulfed her. Seconds later, the empty skin suit deflated and flopped to the floor. The Doctor was moving before it even settled, sprinting around the console. "Don't look! Stay there, close your eyes!" He slammed a lever down and pushed the panel to close the gap.

The second it was closed, the singing cut off and the pressure in Rey's head lifted at once. Her hearing and vision were back to normal, though they still felt sensitive. Nausea built in her gut, making her glad she hadn't eaten. All in all, she'd had worse migraines before, but just barely.

Thankfully, the tingling had stopped and she realized she was freezing.

The Doctor remained at the controls, pressing buttons and flipping switches with an almost violent effort. "Now, Jack, come on—shut it all down. Shut down! Rose, that panel over there—turn all the switches to the right."

Rey stood awkwardly as the others rushed to follow his instructions. Still trying to come back to herself, she felt like she'd either pass out or lose the contents of her stomach if she moved.

The ringing of the cloister bell snapped her out of it. Unprompted, she forced the discomfort down and ran over to stop the wretched sound. The shaking slowed. Energy from the rift below surged through the central column and she heard it discharge into the sky in the form of a clap of thunder that was likely accompanied by a flash of lightning.

Finally, everything calmed.

"Nicely done. Thank you, all."

"What happened to Margaret," Rose asked.

"Must've got burnt up," Jack reasoned, glancing at the last spot she stood in. "Carried out her own death sentence."

The Doctor looked at the body suit. "No. I don't think she's dead."

"Then, where'd she go?"

"She looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and even I don't know how strong that is. And the ship's telepathic—like I told you, Rose. Gets inside your head. Translates alien languages. Maybe the raw energy can translate all sorts of thoughts…"

Hesitantly, Rey prodded the flat suit. It was thankfully free from gore, more like an inflatable prop with a big zipper on the forehead. Margaret's teleport device glimmered among the folds of the clothes and she snatched it up, tucking it away in her pocket before anyone realized what she did. It was probably fried after everything, and it'd be next to useless without coordinates, but she could study it. There had to be a book in the library about the histories and variations of teleportation devices.

The Doctor kneeled next to the suit and the others copied the action. A lump sat in the middle of the clothing-and-skin puddle. He reached in and pulled out a large, strange egg. "Here she is!"

"She's an egg," Rose asked.

"The TARDIS regressed her to infancy," Rey guessed.

"She's an egg," Jack echoed.

"She can start again," the Doctor exclaimed. "Live her life from scratch. If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell 'em to bring her up properly, she might be alright!"

"Or she might be worse."

"At least it would be her choice this time," Rey offered.

"She's an egg," Rose said again.

"She's an egg," the Doctor agreed merrily.

A beat of silence passed before Rose shot to her feet. "Oh my God. Mickey—"

She ran out to find him without another word. Fifteen minutes later, she returned alone, clearly unsuccessful. The Doctor was pretending badly that they hadn't just spent the entire time waiting for her in an awkward silence. "We're all powered up. We can leave. Opening the rift filled us up with energy—we can go. If that's alright…"

"Yeah, fine," Rose said in a light tone that she didn't feel. Her cheeks had traces of tear tracks running down them.

"What about Mickey," Rey asked.

"And you care?"

"Of course I care." She could guess what the couple argued about. Mickey hadn't exactly been subtle in how he felt about the Doctor and traveling. She felt bad for both of them.

The fight drained out of Rose quickly. "He's okay. He's gone."

"D'you wanna go and find him," the Doctor asked. "We'll wait…"

"No need. He deserves better."

"Off we go then," He pulled a lever, setting the TARDIS in motion. "Always moving on."

"Next stop, er—" Jack caught himself in time. "Well, you know where."

"We'll just stop by and pop her in the hatchery. Margaret the Slitheen can live her life again! A second chance."

* * *

"If I did something wrong please just tell me," Rey asked directly.

There was no use in beating around the bush. It was just her and the Doctor now. Rose went to bed almost as soon as they dropped Margaret off. Jack had fled the room nearly as soon after, claiming the explosions had wiped him out. The Doctor hadn't looked at her once since the incident with the TARDIS's heart.

"Why would you think that?"

She stepped around the console and tugged at his sleeve so he'd turn to face her. Eye contact was still something she was getting used to maintaining on a regular basis. Like many things, it was easier and more difficult with the Doctor, but that was a topic for another time.

"I heard singing. It was really loud, but beautiful and lonely. Are you still lonely?"

He gave a large sigh and finally turned to face her fully. "No. I'm worried," he admitted, cringing as he did like it was shameful.

"About what?"

"A lot of things. The shape of the TARDIS, if Jack's change of heart will last—that's sort of a spoiler by the way—sorry, not sorry, the way Rose keeps pulling away from her mum and Mickey."

She paused, ignoring the bit about spoilers and giving his misgivings the consideration they deserved. "Will you let me teach _you_ something this time?"

He nodded, head tilting in his curiosity.

"I have this trick I use when listing the elements doesn't help. I take the things I worry about and pick them apart, one by one. For example: the TARDIS repairs. We'll start with the lights tomorrow because even you need to see what you're doing. Then we can move on to the power couplings, and the capacitors, and the platting last."

He nodded, and she could see him beginning to work out how to fix each component.

"We can take Rose to visit her mum soon. I'm sure Jackie will have better advice about Mickey."

"Mother knows best," he said half jokingly, but half honestly too.

"And as for Jack—listen to him the next time you tell him to do something. Don't just hear his words, listen to the respect he has for you and you'll see he isn't going to just leave."

The Doctor reached into his inner coat pocket and pulled out the silver chain he had bought earlier when he thought no one was looking. Hanging from it was a shiny silver TARDIS key. "I know you don't really need one. But just in case. I worry about you too," he admitted in a small voice. "I always will. Especially when you jump."

She hung the chair around her neck and reached for his hand. He squeezed back tightly, palm rough and warm. "Thank you," she said honestly. "But you don't need to worry about me. I'm very good at landing on my feet."


	7. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

**To everyone who had reviewed, followed, or favorited this story, thank you! It really feeds the part of me with crippling insecurity and a desperate need to be validated. I'm so glad that there are people out there who actually like this silly story of mine. So here's...**

 **AKA In Which Distance is like Fog**

* * *

Rey tugged on the Doctor's sleeve to pull him along as she led the way back to the TARDIS. He was still in a daze, too stunned to even think properly. Nefertiti chasing after him and calling out seductively didn't help. She managed to catch up before Rey could unlock the doors.

"You think I'd let you leave without me?" The Queen of Egypt pressed the Doctor up against the side of the TARDIS and rubbed her hands along his chest as she cooed. "After what we've just been through?"

Rey couldn't explain why, but the low-level hum of irritation she had been feeling flared up. Nefertiti was everything and more than all the history books about her, and Rey had a healthy amount of respect for her. She had been so excited to meet her until they actually met and she remembered that respecting someone wasn't equivalent to enjoying their presence.

"You have the Egyptian people to rule." It was bad taste to leave the country in its current derelict form, especially since it was Nefertiti's job to run it. "I'm sure they'll need a lot of reassurance following the weapon-bearing giant alien locust incident we just averted."

"Rather brilliantly, I might add," the Doctor squeaked in a high-pitched voice.

Nefertiti looked up at him through her lashes. Rey raised an eyebrow and gave him a look to stop him from talking.

A car horn blared out, causing all three of them jump. The Doctor easily switched places with Nefertiti, giving himself more room to step back and dig through his pockets for the psychic paper. "Sorry! That's me. Where is it…"

Rey rolled her eyes and pulled what he was looking for out of the back pocket of her jeans. He hadn't even noticed when she'd taken it two hours ago. "You set it to temporal newsfeed again," she noted with a frown. Thankfully, the overbearing noise cut off as soon as she flipped the paper open.

"Right, sorry, got a bit bored." He leaned over her shoulder to read the notice. "Oh, that's interesting!"

"What is," Nefertiti asked.

"Nothing! Not at… Ohh! We've never been there! Exciting!"

"Then let's stop reading about it and go." Rey jammed her key in the lock a little more viciously than intended and pushed the doors open. She pushed the Doctor inside and, before either of them could stop her, Nefertiti slipped in after them. With her chasing the Doctor around the console, Rey ended up having to do most of the piloting. Luckily, she was getting better at that.

She had Jack to thank for that.

They landed without a hitch at a nondescript military base in 2167. Indira, a high ranking officer there, was reluctant to share any information considering they had literally appeared out of thin air. The Doctor did his thing: talking a mile a minute, waving his hands everywhere, and generally making a mess of things. Just as they were to be thrown in a military prison, he remembered what other uses the psychic paper had and managed to convince them he could help.

With some lingering reluctance, Indira showed them the image of a large ship currently on a crash course towards Earth. If she could, Rey would have whistled when she saw the size of it. Ten million square kilometres—that was about the same size of Canada.

"Any signs of life?"

Indira pulled up the results on her screen. "We sent up a drone craft. It took these readings."

"Crikey Charlie! Look at that!"

"Are those…" Wide-eyed, Rey whipped around to face the Doctor. He nodded back excitedly, understanding her perfectly. "We have to take a look. We can bring…"

"Exactly, yes, he'd love to, I'm sure."

"And the Ponds," she insisted.

"Yes, mustn't forget the Ponds. Haven't seen them in ages."

Her lips twitched downward, excitement dampened by that knowledge. She had already figured out that this was later in their tenure as companions. The Ponds didn't stick around as much now compared to their beginning. Even still, they had been suspiciously absent for a while.

In typical fashion, the Doctor gave her no clues about what was actually going on. She gleamed just enough to know that something was wrong, and she had a feeling it was because of more than just potential spoilers. That didn't comfort her—quite the opposite in fact.

The later in his timeline she jumped, the more often the Doctor was on his own. It was worrisome. A man like him shouldn't be alone too much or often. It brought his head to some dark places.

"Can you communicate with this craft," Nefertiti asked. Just after they landed, the Doctor had pulled her aside and they had a brief, private chat. Rey had no idea or interest in what they talked about, but the flirting had stopped after it. Nefertiti had even apologized, though why Rey had no idea. Sure, she'd been irritated, but that was her problem, not Nefertiti's.

"No. No response on any channel in any recognized language. If it comes within 10000 kilometres of Earth, we send up missiles."

The Doctor let out a heavy sigh. "Oh, Indira, I liked you before you said missiles. How long 'till the ship gets that close?"

"Six hours, nineteen minutes."

"So we should get a move on, then," Rey decided.

"Leave it with us," the Doctor said before steering himself and Rey back to the TARDIS. "Neffy! We're going to need help."

Help meant the Ponds of course, but also another friend they'd made a while back. Well, a while back for Rey, and just recently for the Doctor. Riddell was camped out in front of a fire in the middle of the African plains in 1902. He was staring fondly if not a little forlornly up at the starry night sky when the Doctor and Rey plopped down.

"More stew," the Doctor asked.

Riddle startled, hand reaching for one of the guns he always kept nearby before he realized who they were. "Where have you two been?! Seven months! You were popping out for some liquorice! I had two very disappointed dancers on my hands! Not that I couldn't manage."

"Seven months," the Doctor asked, distracted. "Really? Could've sworn I set us for a week later, not seven months…"

"Doctor," she reminded him gently.

"No, right, thanks Rey. Riddle, listen, we've found… well, something."

"No," Riddle protested, setting his food down so he could gesture and really drive the point home. "No, no, no, no, no. I shan't fall for that again." He picked up the bowl and was about to take another bite when he paused. The internal debate he was having ended when he dropped the spoon back in the stew. "What is it?"

"We have no idea," she told him. "Do you want to find out?"

Asking Riddle was perfunctory seeing as he'd already made up his mind. He didn't even bother to finish eating, instead standing immediately and demanding they set out at once.

"Not just yet. We have one more stop to make to pick up the Ponds."

"Very quick," the Doctor assured him, taking the controls. "Just a fly-by. We'll pick them up and be on our way."

He didn't even bother to properly land the TARDIS, materializing around where the sensors placed Amy and Rory just long enough to basically scoop them inside. Apparently, they'd been in the middle of some home repairs. Each held steady one side of a ladder while another man, older and resembling Rory a little, held a light bulb up above his head.

The Doctor greeted them without turning around. "Hello. You weren't busy, were you? Well, even if you were, it wasn't as interesting as this probably is. Didn't want you to miss it. Now, just a quick hop." The TARDIS shuddered as they landed. "Everybody grab a torch!"

Amy rolled her eyes at the Doctor's turned back, and Rory wrung his hands, but they both abandoned the ladder and complied. Rey gave Amy and Rory her best attempt at an apologetic look. They seemed to both brighten and dim a little at the sight of her, if that was even possible.

The stranger dropped the light bulb, and it shattered on the floor.

The Doctor took Rey's gloved hand, leading her out to the mysterious ship. She tried to get him to notice they had brought along someone extra, but he was far too excited with exploring to listen. If she didn't know any better, she would say he was purposely paying the Ponds the least amount of attention he could. But that was crazy.

Wasn't it?

He shone his torch at a spider web as the others exited more slowly. "Spiders. Don't normally get spiders in space."

"There was that one ship with the giant carnivorous ones that looked like black widows. Remember? They wanted to suck our innards out."

"Right, right." He looked sheepishly back at her. The Persimmon Archipelago on Cline had been what he was aiming for. Of course, that wasn't where they ended up, though that time it hadn't actually been the Doctor's fault, and they had managed to get out reasonably fast.

"What that…?"

"Don't move!" He whipped around and marched over to the stranger. "D'you really think I'm that stupid I wouldn't notice? How did you get aboard? Tramsmat? Who sent you?"

"Doctor… that's my dad," Rory explained awkwardly. He looked at Rey, possibly in a plea for help.

"Well, frankly that's outrageous." The Doctor turned to Rory, shining the light in his eyes. "You think you can bring your dad along without asking? I'm not a taxi service, you know!"

"You materialized the TARDIS around them," Rey reminded him.

He deflated a little. "Oh, well, that's fine then, my mistake. Hello, Brian, how are you?" He took Brian's hand and shook it pleasantly. "Nice to meet you. Have you met Rey?" She shook her head at the same time he answered in the affirmative. "Yeah, that tends to happen. Welcome, welcome! This is the gang. I've got a gang—yes! Come on then, everyone!"

He pulled her with him down the hall.

Rey slapped his arm. Their hands stayed connected, however. It felt nice. And a little weird since she'd never held someone's hand and thought it felt nice before. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong? Come on, giant spaceship, impossible life readings, let's explore!"

"You've been acting off ever since I got here." He had been jumpy, more attentive and protective to the point that it bordered on paranoia. And then he'd been more manic as if to try and cover up his mood swings. If she thought about it, the brunt of the mania hadn't started until she told him she'd come from Cardiff. Ever since she mentioned the Margaret affair and the god awful headache the heart of the TARDIS had given her, he'd gone into full overdrive.

"You're starting to worry me, Doctor. What is it that has you so scared?"

She went easily into the hug he pulled her in. Even though she didn't feel much like hugging at the moment, he needed it, and she was worried. His hold on her was tight, like he was afraid she might disappear if his grip wasn't strong enough. He mumbled something in her hair that she couldn't quite make out. It felt like an apology, but for what she had no idea.

When she finally pulled away from him, the pained expression on his face made her heart ache. Hcould she ask about whatever it was that was bothering him when he looked like that?

"Okay," she said, agreeing to shelve the talk for later. "Okay. Huge spaceship, impossible life signs, and a giant clock ticking over our heads. We have the Ponds, an Egyptian queen, and a reformed game hunter—let's explore."

He smiled at her, recognizing what she doing for his sake. It wasn't quite as bright as his normal smile, but it was a lot better than how he looked a minute ago.

A loud thud echoed as the ship started shaking. Rory and Brian, who had stepped away while the son tried to explain to his father what was going on, rushed to rejoin the group. Judging from the looks on both their faces, the talk hadn't gone so well.

In particular, Brian kept shooting Rey these undecipherable looks. Rory must have gotten to the jumping timetracks part of her "quirk." It always seemed to rub people the wrong way a little.

"Alright, where are we, and what is that noise," Amy asked. "And hello! Ten months! Rey I can understand, but you?"

"Orbiting Earth—well, I say orbiting, more like pre-crashing on a spaceship—don't know, and hello, Pond." The Doctor moved to hug Amy.

She neatly sidestepped him and asked Rey for a hug first. She shot a smug look over Amy shoulder and accepted the embrace. Amy must've missed them more than she was letting on—her hold was tight.

"Ten months, time flies. Never really understood that phrase. This is Neffy, this is Riddell, they're with us."

"With you? They're with you? Are they the new us? Is that why we haven't seen you two?"

"No one could replace you and Rory," Rey assured her.

The Doctor nodded in agreement. "Exactly, they're just people, they're not Ponds! I thought we might need a gang, not really had a gang before, it's new."

Rey cringed at the grinding screech of metal on metal. It made her teeth ache and her ears want to detach from her body. They quickly identified the source of the sound: a nearby lift slowing the car as it reached its destination.

"That's unexpected," she commented as her eyes tracked the carriage.

"What is it," Amy asked her.

She shrugged. "No idea."

Two creatures roared as they came charging out the lift doors.

"Run!"

Not heeding his own advice, the Doctor stayed where he was and watched the animals with an amazed grin.

Rey stayed by his side, similarly stunned. "Dinosaurs," she breathed, ignoring Amy as she called out to them.

"I know!"

"Dinosaurs," she repeated in a louder voice. "On a spaceship. We're on a spaceship pre-crashing towards Earth, and there are actual dinosaurs here."

The ankylosaurs let out another roar. Realizing they were going to be roadkill soon if they didn't move, she grabbed the Doctor's arm and pulled him along. They tore down the corridor, quickly catching up to the others. Riddell was at the back with Amy, covering them with his gun. At the front, Nefertiti led them around the corner to an alcove too narrow for the large beasts to fit through. The Doctor slid in last, using his larger body to shield Rey as they just barely made it through in time.

He raised a finger to his lips. They all listened in tense silence as the ankylosaurs stomped after them. Riddell slid a large knife out from its sheath. His game hunting instincts had kicked in. "I could take one of them, short blow, up to the throat."

"Or you could not," Rey said with a frown. "It's good that you're prepared, but let's not re-extinct the dinosaurs we just found. In space."

"We need to preserve them," the Doctor agreed in a stern whisper.

"And who's going to preserve us?"

Amy shushed them. The ankylosaurs knocked loose pieces of the walls as they trampled through. They continued past the hiding group and down the corridor. Slowly, the Doctor leaned back, checking if the coast was clear before he stepped back fully to let them out.

"Okay, so, how," Rory asked. "And whose ship?"

"There's so much to discover. Think how much wiser we'll be by the end of this," the Doctor said, not wanting to admit he didn't know.

"Sorry. Sorry. Are you saying dinosaurs are flying a spaceship," Brian asked.

"Brian, please! That would be ridiculous. They're probably just passengers."

"You should also know that there are missiles aimed at us," Rey added. They all deserved to be equally informed of the potential danger they were in.

"Missiles?!"

Both Rory and the Doctor quickly shushed Brian, not wanting to draw the ankylosaurs back.

"I didn't want to worry them," the Doctor protested. "Besides, six hours is a lifetime… Not literally a lifetime, that's what we're trying to avoid. And we're all really clever! Let's see what we can find out. Come on."

Three turns and four corridors later, the Doctor finally spotted a room with some computers in it. The machines were nearly buried in vines, spider webs, and dust, but still in working condition. He wiped the screen, made a face, and wiped his hand clean on Brian's clothes.

Rey shivered. Even with her gloves on, she was hesitant to touch anything. The grime looked like it would never wash away.

"How many dinosaurs do you think are on here," Amy asked.

He soniced the equipment on. "Oh, well done, whoever you are. Looking for the engines." Registering his request, the computer automatically did a search and pulled up the relevant information. "Thank you, computer. Look at that, different sections have different engines, but these look like the primary clusters." He pointed. Rey leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. "Where are we now, computer? We need to get down to these engines…" he touched the screen, she blinked, and suddenly they were standing on a beach.

It was overcast.

"…and find out how…"

"What," Rory exclaimed.

"We're outside. We're on a beach," Brian stated in amazement.

"Teleport! Oh, I hate teleports. Must have activated on my voice."

"Ah, yes, well, thank you Arthur C Clarke," Brian shot back angrily. "Teleport, obviously, I mean, we're on a spaceship, with dinosaurs, why wouldn't there be a teleport? In fact, why don't we just teleport now?!"

"He's not taking this well," Rey noted as he stormed off.

Rory sighed. She patted him on the back consolingly, and he offered her a weak but genuine smile back. One of the many things Rey liked about Rory was how subtle he was. Rory was patient and unfailing. He didn't need long speeches and grand gestures. Amy was rather physical when it came to conveying her affections, and to be honest, sometimes it was a little too much for Rey. But with Rory, she could just as easily convey what she meant through a look or simple gesture.

He also made an effort to make himself as nonthreatening as possible. And he hadn't taken offense when he'd noticed he made her feel uncomfortable. Rory had just wordlessly taken a step back until she could breathe easily. More and more she found herself relaxing around him, ignoring the little voice at the back of her head repeating _nurse, danger, run_. He was just so different from all the other medical professionals she'd encountered, sans the Doctor who was in a league of his own, that she could forget her aversion.

"He hates traveling," Rory explained. "Makes him anxious. He only goes to the paper shop and golf."

"What did you bring him for," the Doctor asked.

Rory glared incredulously.

"He didn't," Rey reminded him.

"Why can't you just phone ahead, like any normal person," Rory asked. "Rey popping by is one thing, but you…"

Brian wandered back towards them. "Can somebody tell me where we are, now?"

The Doctor stuck his tongue out and tasted the air. "Well, it's not Earth. Doesn't taste right. Too metallic."

A huge bird flew by overhead, calling out as it did. "Is that a kestrel?"

"One should hope," Rey said evenly, "but probably not."

Rory bent down and placed his hand flat on the sand like he was feeling for something. "The beach is humming."

"Is it?" The Doctor copied him. "Oh, yes! Right, well, don't just stand there, you two, dig! Rey and I are going to look at rocks. Love a rock." He marched off, but not before taking the time to carefully link arms with her.

"Dig with what," Rory called after their retreating forms. Brian pulled a collapsible trowel from his pocket and began digging. "Did you just have that on you?"

"Of course! What sort of man doesn't carry a trowel," he asked like the answer was obvious. For a man who didn't like traveling, Brian was awfully prepared. And Rory, though he may complain, was excellent at putting people at ease. "Put it on your Christmas list."

Rory squatted and started helping. "Dad, I'm 31. I don't have a Christmas list anymore."

"I do!" The Doctor's free arm shot up.

"Is that," Rey began, then thought better of it and snapped her jaw shut.

He paused and looked at her curiously. She didn't meet his gaze, busy rebuking herself. Her and her big mouth. She had gotten too comfortable and carried away, and hadn't thought before she spoke.

"You can ask me anything, Rey. Any me." His lips twisted into a wistful smile.

"It's dumb…"

"Hey, hey. Nothing from you could ever be dumb. Besides, look at me: I say silly things all the time!"

She huffed and had to concede the point.

"Ask me, Rey. Anything. I won't lie to you."

"But you never say the whole truth either," she said before she could top herself. "I can't either. Spoilers, right?"

Sometimes, it felt like she and the Doctor were forever on uneven footing. Either she knew more or he did; there was never a point where they were equals. Looking at him was like looking through a fog. She could make out shapes, even discern objects, but the details were always hidden.

It was how they operated—the Doctor and Rey in the realm of half-truths.

"Are people supposed to have Christmas lists," she blurted out before she could talk herself out of it. Because yes, she and the Doctor weren't equals, but that didn't mean they couldn't hope to be in the future. And all plans required action, or else they'd just stay plans.

"I know what Christmas is, though I don't really understand the gift-giving aspect of it. But, why do people make lists? What do they put on it? Is it normal to make them?"

Christmas had always been a strange affair at the hospital. Her room would remain as grey as it always was, but the staff would put up decorations in the halls and nurse's stations. Rey wasn't allowed to linger much, but she could enjoy them when she passed through for her treatment sessions. Even Dr. Usher would given in and have something that would throw off the design of his otherwise dull office.

With the holidays came a dip in everyone's mood for the week before, then an uptick in the days leading up. The hospital was all but deserted for the days before, of, and after Christmas. She knew from her books about Christmas dinner and presents and even Santa Clause, but she could never fully connect to it the way the authors intended.

For Rey, Christmas was just a day she spent on her own.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she thought it would have been better to have not said a thing. The Doctor got this awful look on his face, full of sadness and pain and anger too. It was gut wrenching just to see, and _she_ had been the one to give it to him.

Then, as soon as it had appeared, the expression disappeared off his face. It was gone so fast, she could almost believe she imagined it.

He beamed at her and explained without a hint of condescension. People gave gifts at Christmas so they could make the people they cared about happy. It was another way of saying "thank you for being in my life." Christmas lists were so that the giver could ensure their gift was something the receiver wanted. "And yes, it's totally normal to make them, but not everyone does."

She nodded in understanding. When he put his mind to it, the Doctor could be a pretty good teacher.

It didn't take Rory and Brian much longer to hit something beneath the beach. The sand was barely a foot deep—just enough to form a buffer layer. Brian tapped the metal with his knuckles. "There's a floor under this beach!"

Rey knelt to examine the rocks closer. "Is that…?"

"Yup," the Doctor said proudly.

"How clever. Metal floor, screens in the rocks—it's very fuel efficient."

"It was just a short-range teleport," he explained to the others. "We're still on the ship."

Brian shook his head. "No. We're outside, on a beach." Rory, having learned better by now, tried to convince him otherwise. All it earned him was a "Don't be ridiculous," and a stern look.

"Well, it is quite ridiculous. Also, like Rey said, very clever. That's why the system teleported us here—I wanted the engines." The Doctor turned and stretched his arms out to gesture to the whole room. "This is the engine room! Hydro generators."

"I have literally no idea what he's saying."

"A spaceship powered by waves," Rory explained simply.

The Doctor helped her to her feet, hands lingering unnecessarily to make sure she kept her balance on the uneven footing. "Fabulously impossible! Oh, think of the things we could learn from this ship if we manage to stop it being blown to pieces."

"Plus not dying," Rory added.

"Also a good thing," Rey agreed. "And crossing a number of species off the extinction list."

Rory grinned at her.

"Bad news is—can't shut the wave systems down in time. Takes… takes way too long."

"If these are the engines, there must be a control room," Rory reasoned.

"Exactly! That's what we need to find." He beckoned Rory and his father over to whisper the next part. "Now, what do we do about the things that aren't kestrels?"

The birds continued to screech as they flew closer. Also, they weren't birds at all, or rather, they were birds, the just were also… "Oh, my Lord. Are those pterodactyls," Brian asked.

"Yes. On any other occasion, I'd be thrilled. Exposed on a beach, less than thrilled. We should be going." The Doctor grabbed her hand with one of his, and Rory, who in turn grabbed hold of his father, with the other. They ran along the beach only to be met with a cliff face standing in their way.

"Where," Brian asked.

"Definitely away from them," Rey answered, eyes scanning for any way out.

"That's the plan," Rory shouted.

"That's the plan," the Doctor confirmed. "Amendments welcome! Move away from the pterodactyls!"

"I think they've noticed," Rey warned.

"Amended plan—run!"

"Can't we just teleport or something," Rory asked through huffed breaths. They on sand was twice as difficult as running on normal ground was.

"No, local teleport's burned out on arrival."

"There." Rey pointed. "There's an opening in the cliffs."

They had just about reached the mouth of the cave when a pterodactyl dived and nipped Rory's shoulder. He gasped and stumbled, but kept managed to stay on his feet until they were safely covered. Once inside, he stopped and leaned heavily against the wall.

"Are you alright," Brian asked worriedly.

"Yes, I'm fine." He looked to the Doctor and Rey. "What do we do now? There's no way back out there."

Which only left them with the option of moving further into the cave. The Doctor led the way, keeping a steady grip on Rey's hand. They didn't get far when a loud thudding began echoing off the stone walls.

"We're trapped," Brian exclaimed.

"Yes, thanks for spelling it out," the Doctor said dryly.

"Doctor, whatever's down there is coming this way," Rory said.

"Spelling it out is hereditary," he complained to Rey. "Wonderful!"

"That sound's getting nearer!" Following Brian's warning, they backed up until there was nowhere left to go.

As it turned out, the sound came from two large robots making their way towards them. They had likely been painted a bright yellow at one point, but the color had faded, chipped off, rusted with time. Even stranger than their ragtag appearance were the words they utter when they found the group.

"We're very cross with you!"

The robots didn't explain a thing, they just rounded the four of them all up and led them away from the engines, back towards the rest of the ship. The entire time they kept shouting scolding remarks like, "You're going straight on the naughty step!"

"What's the escape plan," Brian whispered. He kept his lips still to make it look like he wasn't talking, but it mostly just made him harder to understand.

"Why do we want to escape," the Doctor asked.

"They have us hostage."

"They're taking us somewhere," Rory explained. "We might learn from it."

"Oh, you see?" The Doctor pinched his cheek condescendingly. "So clever. I missed you, Rory!"

He swatted the hand away.

"What if they kill us," Brian asked.

"They wouldn't need to take us somewhere if they were going to kill us," Rey pointed out.

"Exactly." The Doctor tapped one of the robots on its chest piece. "You're not going to kill us, are you Rusty?"

"Who are you calling Rusty," the other robot demanded.

"Have you looked in a mirror lately," she asked.

"You try being on this ship for two millennia, see how _your_ paintwork does!"

"Don't listen to 'em," Rusty advised. "They're just being mean cos we captured them."

The robots continued to bicker, oblivious to their surroundings. Brian turned and let out a loud gasp. Rory looked to see what the big deal was and let out a similar sound, drawing Rey's attention. A few feet away, a triceratops dawdled around.

"Herbivore," she reassured them. "Try not to panic Brian, it won't hurt you."

"Beautiful." The Doctor bent over as the dinosaur slowly approached.

"Shall I shoot it," Rusty asked.

"We're not supposed to shoot the creatures, stupid," not-Rusty yelled.

"Stop calling me stupid!"

The triceratops roared. "'Rargh' yourself," the Doctor shot back cheerfully. "Hello, cutie-pie. Who's a lovely Tricey then, eh?"

It wandered close enough that they could pet it. Rey pulled off her glove and stroked her hand along Tricey's snout nervously at first, then with more confidence when he didn't react badly. The feeling of the ridges against her skin was actually quite nice.

Her jaw ached, and it took a moment for her to realize that it was because she was smiling. It probably looked as awkward and out of place on her face as all her other attempts at emoting. Nevertheless, the Doctor beamed when he saw it.

Tricey turned his head and sniffed Brian right at crotch level. "What do I do? What do I do?! What's it doing?"

"Would you happen to have any vegetable matter in your trousers," she asked.

"Only my balls."

Rory covered his eyes with a hand. Conversely, the Doctor's eyes widened to a comical size. "I'm sorry?"

"Golf balls," Brian elaborated. He pulled two out from his pocket. "Grassy residue."

"What're you carrying those around for," Rory asked.

Tricey licked Brian's face with his massive tongue. A trail of slimy saliva stuck to the man's skin. Rey took a step back and replaced her glove while the Doctor cooed.

Brian himself didn't hold back at physically and verbally conveying his disgust. "Get away from me!"

"You could try throwing one of the balls," she suggested.

"Really? Is this what you want," he asked Tricey. Suddenly, he wasn't so much deathly afraid as stiffly amused, like Tricey was an overgrown puppy. "Is it?"

He threw the golf ball and Tricey took off after it.

The Doctor beamed at Rey and patted Brian on the back before turning back to the robots. "Right! Take us to your leader."

"Really?"

"Too good to resist."

They were escorted through a few more corridors until they came upon another ship, much smaller than the one they were currently on. A heavy metal gate barred the entrance. The Doctor leaned forward so he could talk to whoever was on the other side. "Love what you've done with the place down here."

"Let him in. Open the gate." The voice sounded like it belonged to an old man. One in a lot of pain if Rey was interpreting the stress factors in his tone properly. She was always better at picking out those kinds of things.

Not-Rusty pressed a button. Rusty made to pull her back when she followed the Doctor through the now open space, but the vicious glare the Doctor sent it had it rearing back with its hands up defensively. The gate snapped shut the second they were on the other side of it, cutting them off from the other half of their group.

"It's fine. It's fine," the Doctor assured Rory when he made to object.

"He's not interested in _you_ ," Rusty said rudely.

"Look, you need to learn some manners," Rory told it.

"No, _you_ need to learn some manners," it shot back. They argued back and forth a few times, sounding more like a couple of children than a grown man and a robot.

Inside the other spaceship, Rey and the Doctor walked directly to the modified infirmary. The sight of the medical instruments automatically sent her hackles up. Just like the computers from the first ship, the equipment was covered with cobwebs. An old man was nested in a bed at the centre of the.

"Fantasia in F Minor for four hands," the Doctor noted. Piano music played softly in the background, a stark contrast to their current predicament.

"You know it," the man noted.

"Know it? Say hello to hands three and four! Schubert kept tickling me to try and put me off so he could impress Rey. Franz the Hands. Oh, that takes me back. Well, this is… cozy."

His hand holding hers was a steady anchor as they walked around so he could examine the readouts. She gripped back tightly, hating the way she could be so easily unsettled but unable to bring herself to let go. At least it wasn't an actual hospital. She didn't know what she would do if she found herself in one.

"It's fate you came," the man said.

"Is it? I'm the Doctor."

"Yes, I know. I'm Solomon."

A blue light scanned them; the Doctor first, then Rey. The computer beeped, registering the information fed into it.

"What was that," she asked.

"System malfunction," Solomon lied. "Ignore it."

"What happened you," the Doctor no-so-considerately asked.

"I was attacked. Three raptors. They cornered me. The robots rescued me, but it was nearly too late."

"Ah, yes. The robots, they're… unusual." To put it lightly.

"I got them cheap," Solomon explained. "From a concession on Illyria 7. The robots did as best they could with my legs, but… you can help me so much more."

The Doctor turned to her with a questioning look. She nodded to the machines hooked up to Solomon. "Oh, a 'doctor' doctor! I see." He looked at her again, apologetic at the association, but she shrugged. There was no helping the assumption, and he did have some medical training.

With more reluctance than she would have liked, she let him go so he could work. He breathed on his hands before lifting the blankets and bandages covering Solomon's legs. It didn't escape her notice that he purposely positioned himself at an angle to block her view of what was sure to be a gruesome sight. She rolled her eyes at that; like a little gore was going to traumatize her any further. "Let's have a look."

"They chewed through part of the bone in my legs." No wonder Solomon sounded so stressed. That must have been excruciating.

"Yes, very nasty."

"But you can repair them."

The Doctor studied Solomon's face carefully. "If you tell me how you came by so many dinosaurs."

Solomon didn't even take a moment to consider it. "Injure the older one," he commanded like he was ordering lunch.

Rey rushed back to the gate. The metal bit into her palms as she banged against it. "Don't!"

Ignoring her, Rusty shot Brian in the arm without a hint of hesitation. He fell to the ground with a groan of pain.

Rory instantly was at his father's side. "Dad! Dad… It's alright, Dad, it's okay, it's okay."

"Rory?"

"We're fine, Rey," he said tensely. "Go back and help the Doctor."

He was glaring down at Solomon when she returned. She nodded at him, letting him know that Brian wasn't too badly hurt. The fact that he had been hurt at all, however, made her furious.

"I don't respond well to violence, Solomon," he said coldly, standing protectively in front of her.

"And I don't like questions, Doctor. You boarded without my permission. Now, fix me or the next bolt will be fatal."

"Do it," Rey told him. She had a few choice words for Solomon, but with Rory and Brian in danger, she didn't want to risk trying anything. He was exactly the type of small-minded ignoramus that would take a life just to make a point. Plus, she didn't like the way he eyed her, like she was a piece of meat he was appraising. They couldn't get away from him quickly enough.

The Doctor gathered the surgical tools he needed silently and with a hard expression on his face. Completely disregarding the heavy and somber moon, or maybe he was just too chuffed at getting his way, Solomon got chatty. His every remark and question was directed at the Doctor. While Rey was annoyed at such an obvious attempt to make her feel undermined and excluded, she was honestly glad she didn't have to deal with Solomon's attention. His leers alone made her feel like she needed a shower. She hoped the Doctor worked fast. As if picking up on her thoughts, his hands sped up.

"How did you get aboard, Doctor?"

"Oh, I never talk about myself with a gun pointed at me. Let's talk about you. Your cozy little craft embedded in a vast, old ship."

"Very observant."

"I'm a Sagittarius. Probably."

The story came out in bits and pieces, filled with half-lies and little truths. Solomon claimed he was transporting the larger ship to the Roxborne Peninsula. Rey knew from experience that underneath the veneer of a commerce colony, the area was filled with scavenged goods. And the so-called merchandise ended up being living beings nearly as often as it was stolen.

Which led to the Doctor realizing what the light from earlier was. An Identify-and-Value Scan that matched up against a database that ranked every known thing across time and space on a monetary basis. It fit Solomon to a T, but it left Rey with more questions about herself and the Doctor. According to the IV system, they were both worthless because neither of them existed.

"That's me. Worthless," the Doctor said with a small smile. That was when she realized he was purposely keeping her out of the conversation too. She tried to tell herself the sinking feeling in her stomach wasn't disappointment, but it was hard when it seemed like they were working towards opposite ends. The more she tried to close the gap, the further back he pulled. She felt the fog thickening, obscuring her view of him even more.

"Unlike these creatures you have on board. Very valuable… given they're extinct." Whatever he was holding whirred and Solomon groaned. "Done, sit up," the Doctor commanded. "Very slowly."

Rory came up to the gate as the Doctor helped Solomon up. He held a phone out through the gaps. "Rey? It's Amy."

"Hello?"

"Rey! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," she assured Amy quickly. "We all are." She eyed Brian's injured arm. Rory had taken care of it marvelously. He was still a little shaken up, but otherwise he was alright. "What's going on?"

"This is an ark, built by Silurians," Amy said. Rey had no idea what a Silurian was, but she didn't want Amy to stop to explain. "They were looking for another planet."

"Where are they now," Rey asked. Crew aside, there was the size of the ship to consider. And in any case, if it was built out of hope for continued survival, there should have been passengers on it.

"None on board. I mean, thousands of stasis pods—all empty."

Realization hit her like a cold wave. "We'll see you soon, Amy." She ended the call without another word and handed the mobile back to Rory. "Wait for it," she warned him in a whisper. He nodded grimly at her, and she pretended not to notice the way his fingers shook a little when they grazed her hand as he reached back for the phone.

Back in the infirmary, Solomon was leaning heavily on a cane, but he was finally standing. "The pain in my legs. It's gone. I can move them. Thank you, Doctor."

The Doctor ignored him. He noticed the instant Rey's mood changed and was by her side in a flash. "What's wrong?"

"He killed the crew."

"Kill is such an ugly word. We ejected them. The robots woke them from cyro-sleep a handful at a time and we jettisoned them from the airlocks. We must have left a trail of dust and bone."

The Doctor shut his eyes and shook his head in anger and sorrow. Rey kept her eyes open, but she was shaking with disgust and fury. The two held hands, each trying to hold the other back from doing something they'd regret. Solomon would deserve it, but they refused to stoop to his level.

"Piracy and then genocide," Rey summed up.

"Very emotive words, Miss Rey, for someone who seems to harbor so few emotions herself."

"I never claimed to have none. And what you have done is deplorable."

"The lizards wouldn't negotiate. I made them a generous offer," he said lightly.

"The creatures aboard this ship aren't _things_ that you can just steal or trade."

"I feel like you're judging me."

Well, that was probably because she was. A lot.

The Doctor's hand moved to her other shoulder, rubbing soothing circles to calm her. She startled at the action but let it pass. With every full cycle, she felt a little of her anger cool until the murderous rage faded into something more manageable.

"You said Roxborn Peninsula, so why are you heading to Earth? You're on the wrong course. Oh." He realized the answer to his own question. "You don't know how. Ha! Brilliant. You couldn't change the pre-programmed course. Without instructions, the ship defaulted, returned home. Oh, dear. The crew outwitted you, even after you'd massacred them. So now you're a prisoner on the ship that you hijacked."

"Not now you're here," Solomon reasoned. "You're going to help me to where I want to go, Doctor."

"Little bit of news, Solomon. You're being targeted by missiles. Get off this ship… while you still can." He led Rey out of the room, using the sonic to open the gate.

"You think I believe that," Solomon called after them. "You just want them for yourself. You won't profit from me, Doctor."

Rey paused in the junction before the gate could close. She didn't miss the flash of white light, but ignored it in favor of telling Solomon off. It was probably just another scan. "Don't presume to judge him by your nonexistent standards. The Doctor is a million times the person you could ever hope to be. And you? Pathetic."

She aimed the sonic, still in the Doctor's hand, and slammed the gate shut behind them. "Rory and Brian, please get up, we're leaving." She turned to the robots. "He asked to see you two."

The men followed quickly as Rey stormed off. It wasn't until she spotted Tricey in one of the corridors that she paused to let the others catch up. Struck by an idea, the Doctor ran to the triceratops, ushering her along.

"What're we doing," Brian asked as he and Rory chased after them.

"Just do exactly as I do," the Doctor instructed.

Rory protested, but it was too late.

"Geronimo!" The Doctor ran up a pile of stacked crates, then jumped off and landed on Tricey's back. He waved back for Rey to follow.

She exchanged a look with Rory and Brian before crooking a brow and taking off in a sprint for the crates. The Williamses climbed on a little more gingerly.

"Go, Tricey," the Doctor shouted. "Run like the wind!" Tricey called out but stayed in place. The robots, having realized they had been tricked, were catching up to them now. With lasers. "How do you start a triceratops?"

"There they are," Rusty observed.

"I know," not-Rusty called out. "I saw them before you."

Brian pulled out another golf ball from his pocket. "Tricey, fetch!"

He threw the ball forward and Tricey leapt after it like a dog after a Frisbee. The sudden start had Rey nearly falling off. It was rather like how she imagined riding a bull would feel like. If the bull was about three times as big, had ridges on its back, and crossed a dozen metres in a single leap.

The Doctor, adrenaline junkie he was, was having the time of his life, exclaiming as Tricey tore down the hall. "Come on, Tricey! Faster, baby!"

The ball bounced off a wall and they made a sharp turn. Behind them, Rey could hear the robots still arguing, but they were getting further and further away.

"I'm riding a dinosaur," Brian exclaimed. "On a spaceship!"

"I know," Rory yelled back at him in a similar state of amusement and suspended belief.

"I only came 'round to fix your light!"

"Come on, Tricey," the Doctor urged. As the end of the corridor loomed closer and closer their ride gave no indication of slowing down or stopping. "Where are the brakes?!"

Tricey came to a sudden stop, knocking them all off his back. He trotted up to them, still sprawled on the ground, and dropped the golf ball in front of Rory before taking a few steps back and plopping down himself. All the exercise had him exhausted.

"I can't believe that actually worked," Rey said as she stood. "Where are we now?"

Spotting a computer screen, the Doctor rushed over to it. "Incoming message from Earth. Hello, Earth! How are things?"

Indira looked back at them. "Doctor, the ship's coming through the atmosphere. I have to start the missile program."

"No. No, no, no—don't do that, everything's under control here, turning 'round any moment. Need a bit of wiggle room on the timings…"

"I can't do that."

"You can," Rey urged, coming up behind the Doctor. "Please, Indira, we just need a little more time. This ship's cargo…"

"My only responsibility is Earth's safety," she informed them stubbornly. "I'm launching the missiles. Goodbye Rey, Doctor."

The transmission cut out.

Fiddling with the computers didn't provide as much assistance as they hoped. "Well, this is all very bad indeed. Completely unhelpful." The Doctor pushed away and began to pace.

"Doe the ship have any defense systems installed," Rey asked.

"Good thinking!" Before she could react, he kissed her forehead and turned back to the computer. "Show us weapons and defense systems."

 _No Systems Available_ flashed back at them.

"Well, that was a waste of time, wasn't it? Getting my hopes up like that."

Rey stared back at him, a little too stunned to do anything. Her forehead felt warm. Actually, her entire face felt heated. This was worse than the time Donna made them kiss on the lips. That, at least, had been for a reason. This felt like it came out of nowhere. It was odd for their dynamic… unless something had changed—will change? Tenses were so confusing—that she didn't know about.

Maybe… maybe it was a good thing? People kissed each other platonically all the time. In some cultures, it was even a greeting. And if he could do something like that so thoughtlessly, as if on automatic, then maybe it meant that she finally got over her touch aversion in the future.

"What ship doesn't have weapons," Rory asked from beside her, snapping her out of her thoughts. She shook her head and tried to focus. Now was not the time to reexamine their relationship. She could have that crisis later, after they were safe.

"The ancient species—still full of hope."

"What about the control deck," Brian suggested. "You said we should go to the control deck next."

The Doctor stalked away from the computer. "It's too late, it won't make any difference."

"We could at least try."

"It won't work, Rory. The missiles are locked on."

"So, what? We're just giving up?"

"I don't know," he said despondently. "I don't know."

Solomon and the two robots suddenly appeared in a flash of light. "You were telling the truth, Doctor. Earth has launched missiles. This vessel is too clumsy to outrun them, but I have my own ship."

He immediately stepped protectively in front of Rey. "You won't get your precious cargo on board, though. It'll just be you and your metal tantrum machines."

"We do not have tantrums!"

"Shut up," Solomon shouted. He hobbled over to the Doctor, still using the canes to support himself. "You're right, Doctor. I can't keep the dinosaurs and live myself. But I had the IV system run a secondary scan the entire ship and it found something even more valuable. Utterly unique. I don't know where you found it or how you got it here, but I want it."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Earth Queen Nefertiti of Egypt." Strangely, the Doctor relaxed for a moment. But only a moment. "Give her to me and I'll let the rest of you live."

"No." Rey might not like Neffy much, but that she was in no way okay with condemning her to a life as someone else's property.

"You think I won't punish those who get in my way," Solomon challenged. "Whatever their worth?" On his command, not-Rusty aimed its gun and fired at Tricey. He cried out, surviving just long enough to have a slow and painful death. Rey stroked him gently as he took his last breaths, feeling it when Tricey stilled and didn't move again.

The Doctor clapped slowly. "You must be very proud."

"Bring her to me. Or the robots will make their way through your corpses. Starting with your Rey whom you seem to care some much about. Bring her now."

"No," Rey repeated. She stood and stalked back towards the old man, ignoring the laser aimed at her, even when it whined in warning. She'd had enough with him.

Unfortunately, Amy, Riddell, and Neffy chose then to teleport to them.

"What are you doing?"

Neffy stepped forward. "I demanded to be brought here."

"Don't listen to him." Rey glanced back her and didn't move from her position between Neffy and Solomon. "You don't have to do this. We can find another way."

"It isn't your choice, Rey, it's mine."

"If you go with him I can't guarantee your safety," the Doctor said, trying to talk sense into her.

"You saved my people. I am in your debt. Both of you."

"There is no debt," Rey urged. "You don't own us anything. That isn't how it works."

For the first time since they met, Nefertiti offered her a genuine smile. She patted Rey on the cheek before stepping to Solomon's side. "Then I do it of my own will."

"No!" Riddell cocked his rifle and pointed it at the old man. "Take her, I shot you."

"Put your weapon down," Nefertiti commanded, regal still despite everything. "Let me make my choice."

"Do it, boy." The robot whose gun wasn't trained on Rey stepped forward and glowered at Riddle until he obeyed. "My bounty increases. What an extraordinary bounty you are. Though perhaps I should add to it even more. I'm sure I could find a use for the Doctor's Rey."

His hand whipped out, faster than he should have been able to move, and grasped her chin roughly. She felt her skin crawl at the point of contact, nerves lighting up and screaming at her to get away. Unbidden, her foot came up and kicked out at his injured leg. He jerked back in order to remain standing and she ripped herself out of his grip, scrambling back to get away.

Even without his physical touch, she still felt disgusted. Her jaw burned; if she looked in the mirror she was sure she would see angry red marks from where his nails dug in and scratched her. It reminded her of one of her nurses.

There had been more than one actually, but one in particular who spoke in the exact same condescending tone as Solomon. He knew how to hurt her so that he wouldn't leave bruises, and where to leave them so no one would notice if he did. She couldn't fight back at all then, not when the cocktail of drugs they put her on left her feeling sick more often than not. And by that time, the others knew better than to listen to anything she said. It wasn't until he was fired for stealing supplies that she was finally free of him.

When Rey finally came out of herself, it was to an alarm ringing throughout the ship. Both Solomon and Neffy were gone. Her chest felt tight like she'd been holding her breath for too long and her head felt stuffed with cotton. She forced herself to listen to the announcement, trying to find something to focus on.

"Hostile targeting in progress. Hostile targeting in progress. Hostile targeting in progress…"

Something like how targeting systems in the 22nd century worked. They had been a book on the tracking innovations the library. If she remembered the chapter correctly… "We need to get to the control deck."

Amy and Rory shared a concerned look. The Doctor looked utterly confused for a moment, before his eyes lit up with realization. "Of course. Bingo!" He teleported them directly there, not bothering to answer Amy's and Rory's questioning glances. Two chairs for the pilots faced each other in the cockpit. A small post stood between them. He tore the covering off it and got to work.

"So, what's the plan," Rory asked.

"Come on. The missiles are locked onto us, we can't outrun them, we have to save the dinosaurs and get Nefertiti back from Solomon. Isn't it obvious?!"

"It's sort of the opposite of obvious."

"Seventeen minutes before the missiles hit, we need to turn this ship around."

"This is a dual piloting system," Rey noted. That was a bit unexpected. Her brow furrowed as she recalled a manual she found in the library months ago. "But Solomon could have just used one of the robots to help… unless…"

The Doctor looked up from where he was sonicing the inside of the post. "Exactly! See, Rey's got it!"

"You said it was too late," Rory reminded them. "There wasn't any time."

"Ah, yes, but I didn't have this plan then, did I? Riddell? Keep an eye out for dinosaurs."

He cocked his gun and held the spare out for Brian. "I was rather hoping you'd say that."

"No killing any," Rey ordered without turning around. "Brian and Rory, could you two clear the seats? I don't think you want to be sitting in cobwebs."

"What?"

"Two pilot seats, set parallel to each other—this ship needs two operators to fly it. The catch is that they need to be from the same gene chain. That's why Solomon couldn't change the ship's course, but we can. Or more specifically, Rory and Brian can. Aren't we lucky Mr. Brian Pond happened to be with us?"

"I'm not a Pond."

"'Course you are," the Doctor told him. "Sit down, both of you. Ship does all the engineering, the controls are straightforward, even a monkey could use them—oh look." Father and son glared at him as they took their seats. "They're going to. Guys, come on, comedy gold. Where's a Silurian audience when you need one?"

Rey rolled her eyes and set to explaining the controls. "The two eye-line screens show velocity and trajectory. Just steer away from Earth and try not to bump into the moon or the races who live there will be cross."

"What," Brian asked, more about the moon than anything else.

"Primary controls in the arms of the chairs, principle's the same as any vehicle. Any questions, Rey is your go to girl," the Doctor finished.

She checked her watch. "Eight minutes, forty-five seconds."

He soniced the chairs, activating them. "Get us as far away as you can. Right, phase two sorted. Now for phase one."

"Phase two comes after phase one," Amy said.

"Humans, you're so linear. Well, except Rey, she's never linear. Shine a torch in here, will you?"

The two girls moved over to him. Amy held the light up. "What are you doing?"

"Mixing my messages." He pulled out some wires, then motioned for Rey to stick her hands in and hold some down out of the way so he could properly work. "How's the job?"

"We're about to be hit by missiles and you're asking me that?"

"He works best when multi-tasking," Rey explained. "It's best just to go with it." If not, the unanswered question would distract him more than the conversation would have, usually leading to disastrous results.

"I gave it up."

"You gave the last one up," the Doctor said.

"Yeah, well, I can't settle. Every minute, I'm listening for that stupid TARDIS sound, or Rey complaining about landing in the flowers again or something."

"Right, so it's our fault now, is it?!"

"I can't not wait for you two," Amy shot back. "Even now. And they're getting longer, the gap between your visits. At least Rey still calls."

"Are they," she asked.

The Doctor busied himself with shoving his arm in the post.

"I think you're weaning us off you."

"I'm not, I promise." He looked at Amy to make sure she knew he was serious. "Really promise. The others, they're not you. But you and Rory, you have lives. Each other. I thought that's what we all agreed."

She bit her lip. "I know. I just worry there'll come a time when you never turn up, that something will happen to either of you and I'll still be waiting, never knowing."

Rey pulled one of her hands out and placed it on top of Amy's without looking at her. Amy's hand twitched, like she wanted to turn it to properly hold Rey's, but she held herself back.

"No! Come on, Pond." The Doctor nudged her gently. "You'll be there till the end of me."

"Or vice versa."

The sonic beeped, cutting short what would've been a nervous silence that had almost took hold of them. The three of them got up, the Doctor pulling something glowing out of the post as he did.

Riddell re-entered the room looking a little harried. "Doctor? This is a two-man job."

"Take Amy," Rey suggested. She needed to stay in case Rory and Brian needed help and the Doctor needed to go after Neffy. "She's easily worth two men." Amy laughed and grabbed a rifle before following Riddell back out.

"Be back soon." The Doctor kissed the crown of Rey's head quickly before grabbing the crystal that came from inside the post and teleporting away.

She stared at the spot he disappeared from. Another kiss—no, she couldn't think about this now. She was barely holding it together as it was. She couldn't let her mind wander off into all the what if's and maybe's of her future. That could come later, when her nerves weren't so shot.

"Rey?"

She shook her head and refocused, walking Rory and Brian through taking over the autopilot. They picked it up quickly and soon enough, she didn't need to instruct them anymore. Brian was having a blast. He was like a kid again, playing the best video game ever invented.

Once they were safely away from Earth, she helped them plot a basic course and re-engage the autopilot so they could leave the chairs. When the Doctor returned, Nefertiti was with him, and he wore a grim but satisfied smile. He explained phase one of his ingenious plan on the way back to the TARDIS: swapping out the signal of the Silurian ship for Solomon's, then demagnetizing it so the missiles would target him instead.

She was a little thrown by his ruthlessness. Yes, Solomon deserved that and more, and the Doctor had always had problems with those that threatened others, but she thought he would at least offer to save him. If only to turn him over to Indira so the military could take care of him.

"So, dinosaur drop-off time."

"Actually, we think home for us," Rory said, sharing a look with Amy.

The Doctor paused in the TARDIS doorway. "Oh. Fine. Of course."

"Not forever," she added quickly. "Just a couple of months."

Rey patted his back, ushering him fully inside. She tried to say _I'll never leave_ without so many words. Despite the small smile he gave her, she wasn't sure if she managed it.

"We need to drop everyone off and find somewhere new for the dinosaurs," she said instead, cursing her own cowardice.

Nefertiti chose to stay with Riddell, at least for a little while. They were a strange couple, but Rey thought they suited each other in an odd way. Riddell would provide adventure for Neffy, and she would keep him on his toes.

They found a new home for the dinosaurs on a distant planet the Doctor off-handedly named Siluria. He wanted a different name at first, but she vetoed it. It was way too embarrassing. They sent a postcard to the Ponds, and when Rey called to make sure they'd received it on time and not too early, Amy mentioned that the adventure had awakened a traveler's spirit in Brian.

The Doctor laughed when she told him. Of course it had, he'd said. Brian was a Pond, wasn't he?

She stayed with him for a while longer. It was hard to tell exactly how long when they mostly stayed in the Time Vortex, but it was long enough for her to finish her book on cross-species genetics and another one on music theory. They were lounging in the console room together, him working on repairs and her just observing when she felt the familiar tingling in her toes.

"I'm jumping soon," she warned, not wanting him to look up and see that she was just gone.

The Doctor instantly dropped what he was doing and climbed out of the harness. She sat sideways on a step, legs hanging off the side. The railing separated them when he came over to her. For once, they were almost at eye level.

"Doctor?" He was close enough that she could feel his breath on her cheeks, warm little huffs that made her want to shiver. "What's wrong?"

Her hearing was going now. He might have said something, but it could easily have also been a simple twitch of his lips. She could no longer feel the bar of the railing that she knew was under her hands. Her vision began to tunnel, black spots eating at her peripherals.

His lips were the last thing she saw before it all went dark—red, impossibly close, and aimed at a spot lower than her forehead this time.


	8. The Long Game

**AKA In Which the News is like Big Brother**

* * *

The moment Rey landed, her head started throbbing. Her vision, already hampered from the sudden shift from total darkness to bright lights, swam even more than usual. Her legs instantly gave out beneath her. She had never felt like this before, not even when the jumping first started. She didn't just feel disoriented, she felt sick.

It was almost unbearably hot in the room. The sweltering, humid heat had her already sweating. In front of her was the unconscious body of a twenty-something human man. She looked up to find the Doctor and Rose staring at her.

"Hi. Where and when are we this time?"

Eventually, the room stopped spinning and she was helped up by the Doctor. Adam was still down for the count, so she was caught up while they waited for him to regain consciousness. To answer her question, the where was a space station and the when was the year 200000, smack dab in the middle of the Forth Great and Bountiful Human Empire.

Privately, she hoped this would be better than the other times they were in a so-called great and bountiful era. That first adventure with Donna and the Ood aside, the next Doctor had taken her to New Los Angeles to see the premiere of the first all-alien cast of Once Upon a Time in the West and they ended up uncovering a century-long scheme of harvesting people for their spinal fluid. The ten minutes of the film she had seen had been lovely, but she couldn't say the same for the gunk that needed three showers to get out of her hair.

When Adam woke up his reaction to Rey was… strange to say the least. If she didn't know any better, she'd say he was scared of her. He also didn't get it when she tried to explain that she hadn't met him yet.

"But I just saw you at—"

She held a finger to her lips. "Spoilers. You just walked out of a bigger-on-the-inside time machine, this shouldn't be so hard for you to swallow." None of the Doctor's other companions had been this difficult. Actually, that brought up a curious question. Adam wasn't the type the Doctor usually hung around with. This younger Doctor especially had less of a tolerance for people with… less adaptable mindsets. So why had he brought him along?

"Come on, Adam. Open your mind." The Doctor swung an arm around his shoulders and steered him through a set of doors that led out of the observation room. Rose, despite coming off as completely unimpressed with Adam's reactions, hurried off to walk next to him, leaving the Doctor's other side open for Rey. That was also weird—Rose almost always stuck by the Doctor. "You're gonna like this fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent—culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners…"

"Out of the way." A man rudely hollered out as he shoved through between the Doctor and Rey. As if prompted by his voice, the floor sprung to life. Venders popped out from nowhere and in seconds, stalls were set up to form a fast food court in what must have been record time. "Well, there goes that rumor," she mused.

Rose bent down to study the food on display. "Fine cuisine?"

"My watch must be wrong." The Doctor checked his bare wrist. "No, it's fine… weird."

"That's what comes of showing off. Your history's not as good as you thought it was," Rose playfully badgered.

"My history's perfect."

"Maybe not," Rey lightly teased. Her inflection didn't change much, but the Doctor's over exaggerated look of betrayal told her he got that she was joking. "Or maybe history had changed since the last time you checked. Time can be rewritten."

Both the Doctor and Rose tensed the moment she said that. The conversation abruptly died and the air became stilted and heavy. He studied her carefully while Rose wouldn't even look at her. Only Adam seemed unaffected, still trying to take the rest of Floor 139 in. "They're all human. What about the millions of planets? The millions of species? Where are they?"

"Good question," the Doctor replied back distractedly. He stared at Rey for a moment longer before realizing that there truly was a problem. "Actually, that _is_ a good question. Adam, me' old mate, you must be starving."

"No, I'm just a bit time sick."

"Nah, you just need a bit of grub." He turned and called out to the chef of the nearest cart. "Oi, mate, how much is a cronk burger?"

"Two credits twenty, sweetheart. Now, join the queue."

"Money. We need money." He pulled out the sonic and walked to the nearest cashpoint. A few seconds of highly illegal grand theft performed in plain sight later and the machine spit out a metal strip. He handed it to Adam. "There you go—pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets."

"How does it work?"

"Go and find out! Stop nagging me!" Clearly, he was growing frustrated. "The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just ready the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers."

Rey paused. Speaking of kissing, that brought her back to the dinosaur affair. She never did get a chance to ask the Doctor about it, but this explained it. He must've thought of it like this—just a byproduct of traveling. It made everything make a little more sense.

She was starting to wrap her head around it now. It was like the suspension bridge effect—when confronted with a high-stress situation that caused fear, people would sometimes mistake the fear for romantic arousal. The Doctor was certainly the type to get carried away in the moment. So it didn't really mean anything. He had probably realized it himself and was embarrassed, hence not wanting to talk about it. Rey was fine with that. She obliged him plenty of times, what was one more?

"…Or is that just me?"

Rose laughed. Adam looked confused. "Happens to the best of us," Rey mused quietly.

The Doctor quickly shooed Adam away. "Off you go then," he teased Rose as she made to follow. "Your first date."

"You're going to get a smack, you are," she shot back.

"Come on." He motioned for Rey to follow him. He seemed back to his old self, and she didn't know if things were better for that or worse. "Let's find out what's going on."

"It's wrong, isn't it? This time…"

He nodded solemnly. They stopped two employees who were chatting as they walked past. "Erm, this is gonna sound daft, but can you tell me where we are?"

One of them, Cathica, pointed to the huge sign printed on the wall. "Floor 139. Could they write it any bigger?"

"It's not very intuitive," Rey countered. "Floor 139 of what?"

"Must've been a hell of a party."

"Oh, you're on Satellite Five," Cathica's friend, Suki, said cheerfully.

"What's Satellite Five," the Doctor asked.

"Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?" Cathica's voice had acquired that pitched whine belonging to people who were quickly losing their tempers.

"Look at me," he said with a pleasant grin. "Can't speak for Rey here, but me? I'm stupid."

"Hang on, wait a minute, are you a test," Suki asked. "Some sort of management test kind of thing?"

"You got us," Rey lied. "Congrats." She nudged the Doctor to get him to show them the psychic paper.

"We were warned about this in basic training. All workers have to be versed in company promotion."

Cathica's entire demeanor changed. She bounced on the balls of her feet as if readying to run. "Right. Fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor 500 I'll do anything."

"What's on Floor 500," Rey asked.

"The walls are made of gold," she said like it was obvious. "And you should know… Miss Management. So… this is what we do." She led them over to a wall of screens and pointed to each as she narrated. "Latest news… sandstorms on the New Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow Water Riots into their third day… Spacelane 37 closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Boe had just announced he's pregnant."

"You broadcast the news."

"We _are_ the news," Cathica insisted. Suki offered them a smile. "We're the journalists. We write it, package it, and sell it."

"How business-like. Where's your writer's spirit? Your journalistic integrity?"

"We've got six hundred channels all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere. Nothing happens in the whole Human Empire without it going through us. How's that for journalistic integrity?"

She exchanged a look with the Doctor. Cathica had missed her point completely. The whole setup sounded exactly like that: a setup. It felt wrong, and she didn't think it was just her headache throwing her off.

An alarm sounded to indicate the end of the lunch period. The workers weren't given a long break—maybe twenty minutes in total. Barely enough to get a meal and scarf it down. The food court was being cleared and torn down nearly as quickly as it had been built. "Oi! Mutt and Jeff! Over here!" The Doctor waved to Rose and Adam, who were still working on all they had bought.

Rose immediately beamed at him. Her smile fell when she caught sight of Rey, but she diligently abandoned Adam with the rest of the food and joined them. Cathica and Suki led the group from the large hall to another room. Several others entered after and headed straight for the stations set up on the floor. Pads with indents for hands made a circle around an octagonal raised platform. An industrial looking chair stood in the center, the kind with a reclined back and headrest. Cathica stood near it while the others situated themselves around her.

"Now, everybody behave, we have a management inspection. How do you want it? By the book?"

"Right from scratch," the Doctor answered with a nod.

"Okay, so, ladies, gentlemen, multisex, undecided, or robot, my name is Cathica Santini Kadainy. That's Cathica with a 'C.' in case you want to write to Floor 500 praising me, and please… do…" She looked to them for confirmation. Rey gave her a blank stare and a noncommittal nod, and it seemed good enough for her. "Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and non-biased. That's company policy."

"Actually… that's the law," Suki added in a small voice.

"Yes, thank you, Suki. Okay, keep it calm… don't show off for the guests… here we go." She took a seat. "And… engage safety…"

The eight walls lit up one by one as the other staff members held their hands above the pads. With a click of her fingers, the center of Cathica's forehead opened like a door, revealing her brain beneath her skull. Rey held back a grimace. It wasn't so much the sight of a brain that made her squeamish, but the idea that anyone, let alone a company's worth of workers, would purposefully put holes in their head.

When she was ten, there had been this terrible nurse that worked in the psychiatric ward for a while before getting reassigned. She had been the one in charge of caring for Rey when they bound her to the bed for trying to escape. Her hands had always felt freezing cold even through gloves, and she always used too much force when she touched Rey. Day in and day out, she talked about trepanation, threatening to suggest the method to Dr. Usher or even to carry it out herself. Rey had to be drugged because she wouldn't calm down. And when she woke up to find her hair had been shorn short and her head pounding, she was terrified that the nurse had actually gone through with it.

Ten hadn't been a great year for her.

Next to Rose, who looked quite alarmed herself, Adam leaned forward to get a better look.

In unison, the staff placed their hands on the pads and closed their eyes.

"And three… two… and spike."

A pale blue light charged through the machinery hooked to the ceiling and beamed down straight into Cathica's brain. "Compressed information, streaming into her," the Doctor explained quietly. "Reports from every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer."

"If it goes through her, she must be a genius," Rose said in slight awe.

"Nah. She couldn't remember any. There's too much, her head would blow up." He stepped down from where they were watching and circled the room slowly. Rey stayed where she was, but Rose followed him. "The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets."

"The people around the edge help handle the load," she guessed.

He nodded. "They've all got tiny chips in their head, connecting them to her. And they transmit 600 channels. Every single fact in the empire beams out of this place. Now that's what I call power." Completing his circuit around the room, the Doctor leaned back against the railing in front of her. He kept his eyes fixed on Cathica, brow furrowed slightly in worry.

"You alright," Rose asked Adam.

"I can see her brain."

She glanced at him worriedly. "Do you want to get out?"

"No…" Like the Doctor, Adam had his attention locked onto what was going on in the room. Unlike the Doctor, he seemed almost hungry with how much he wanted to know more. "No. this technology is, it's… it's amazing."

"This technology's wrong," the Doctor declared.

Rose caught his eye. "Trouble?"

"Oh, yeah." He smiled at her. She smiled back, satisfied with herself, then tensed when she realized how close she was to Rey. Again, it felt like Rey had missed something big. Rose and she didn't always get along, but not to this extent.

A light shudder ran across the room. Suki twitched and, a moment later, yanked her hands away from the terminal like it had shocked her. With the connection interrupted, the others all lifted their hands up as well. The lights on the walls shut off, and Cathica's forehead closed as the data stopped streaming through her.

"Come off it Suki. I wasn't even halfway. What was that for?"

She rubbed her hands, trying to soothe the ache. "Sorry, must've been a glitch…"

The loudspeaker crackled as Cathica stood. At the same time, a hologram was projected onto the wall, announcing a new promotion in a calm voice. "This is it," Cathica said to herself. "Come on, God, make it me. Come on, say my name. Say my name, say my name…"

The group looked at her in mild concern. She seemed to want it just a little too badly. Rey almost expected her to pull a muscle somehow.

"Promotion for… Suki Macrae Cantrell." Suki's jaw dropped in surprise. Cathica looked devastated. "Please proceed to Floor 500."

She leapt to her feet, staring at her projected name in disbelief. "I don't believe it… Floor 500…"

"How the hell did you manage that," Cathica, just as shocked, asked. "I'm above you!"

"I don't know, I just applied on the off-chance... and they've said yes!"

"That's not fair, I've been applying to Floor 500 for three years!"

"What's Floor 500," Rose asked the Doctor quietly.

He gave her the same answer he'd received: "The walls are made of gold."

Suki asked that they meet her at the lift to say goodbye in a few minutes. She looked nervous but excited with her single packed bag at her side. "Cathica, I'm gonna miss you! Floor 500…" She smiled brightly at the Doctor and Rey. "Thank you,"

"We didn't do anything."

"Well, you're my lucky charms!"

"Alright! I'll hug anyone!" Suki threw her arms around him with a little giggle. Rey settled for a wave and encouraging nod. With her worsening headache, she didn't really want to hug anyone, especially a stranger. What she wanted was to curl up somewhere cool and nap.

Next to them, Cathica was being mulish, looking everywhere but at her departing friend. A little ways away, Rose was talking to Adam. Rey saw her hand him the TARDIS key after speaking for a little while. She guessed he was feeling overwhelmed. Some people just weren't meant for time travel.

"Oh my God, I've got to go, I can't keep them waiting…" Suki picked up her bags and rushed to the lift. It pinged open right away for her to step inside. "I'm sorry! Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!" She waved cheerfully as the lift doors slid shut.

"Good riddance," Cathica said as soon as she was gone.

"You're acting as if you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs," Rey pointed out.

"We won't. Once you go to Floor 500 you never come back." She spun on her heel and headed off towards the lunchroom.

Rey, the Doctor, and Rose followed. "Have you ever been up there," he asked.

"No. You need a key for the lift, and you only get the key with promotion. No one gets to 500 except for the chosen few."

She expected them to part ways, but Cathica actually followed them back into the spike room. Rather than a desire to help, a type of morbid curiosity was what drove her. For a woman who insisted on following company policy to the letter and who seemed content with the way things were, Cathica was awfully curious. Maybe there was a journalist in her, just buried under all the lies Satellite Five was feeding her. Rey could so with less complaining though. "Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance, can't you give it a rest?"

"Have you really never been to another floor," she asked. "Even just one floor up or down?" The Doctor took a seat in the chair. Rose leaned on its back and looked at Cathica expectantly.

"I went to Floor 16 when I first arrived, that's medical, that's when I got my head done, and then I— I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat, and sleep on the same floor." She paused and eyed them carefully. "You're not management, are you?"

"At last! She's clever!"

Cathica frowned. "Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything."

"Because you don't ask," Rey stated. She was flashing back to Solana and the Ood-Sphere.

"Well, why would I?"

The Doctor sat up. "You're a journalist! Rey was right, where's your spirit? Why's all the crew human?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"There aren't any aliens on board," Rey pointed out. "Why is that?"

"I don't know—no real reason. They're not banned or anything."

"Then why aren't they here," she prodded. "Think, Cathica. What's stopping them?"

"I supposed immigration's tightened up," she suggested at a loss. "It's had to, what, with all the threats."

"What threats," asked the Doctor. He pushed himself up out of the chair and stood beside Rey, close enough that she could feel his body heat. Her nerves felt supercharged and her skin flushed. It may have only been the heat, but she felt like she was coming down with a fever.

"I don't know… all of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that kept visitors away… Oh, and the government of Traffic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming. You see… just… lots of little reasons, that's all."

"Adding up to one great big fact and you didn't even notice."

Cathica sighed, exasperated. "Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything."

"It's hard to see the forest for the trees," Rey said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you might notice the details, but you've all been conditioned not to see the forest. And the shape of this forest is wrong."

The Doctor nodded in agreement. "Just look at the technology."

"It's cutting edge!"

"It's backward! There's a great big door in your head! You should've chucked this out years ago." She shivered at the Doctor's words, trying not to remember the image of Cathica's exposed brain. The movement made their arms brush, and it gave her a measure of comfort to be reminded that he was here with her.

Rose pushed off from the chair. "So, what do you think is going on," she asked the Doctor.

"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The Great and Bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back."

"And how would you know," Cathica challenged belligerently.

"Trust me. Humanity's been set back about ninety years. When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"

"Ninety-one years ago…"

They moved out into the corridor. Cathica started playing lookout of her own volition, mostly to keep herself calm. It wasn't working very well. She kept mumbling that they were going to get caught, and her anxiety was making Rey nervous in turn.

The Doctor scanned the side of an access panel with his sonic while she and Rose watched from either side of him. Cathica, of course, protested, but he'd had it with her. "Rose, tell her to button it."

"You can't just vandalize the place," she insisted in a loud whisper. "Someone's gonna notice!" In response, the Doctor wrenched the panel open, gaining access to the mainframe directly.

Rey was pleased at how much she could understand. Traveling with the Doctor was like a crash course in futuristic technology, but she always felt a bit proud of herself when she understood the mechanics of something. It was one thing to use an interface—those were pretty much optimized for minimum effort. But understanding the program or even tricking it was a completely different story.

"I can't stay here, this has nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work." Cathica started walking away.

"Go on then," the Doctor said without looking up. "See ya!"

She stopped and doubled back. "I can't just leave you, can I?"

"You could tell them to turn down the heating," Rey grumbled, pulling at the collar of her shirt. If Satellite Five thought the heat would make the employees more productive, then they were barking up the wrong tree. If anything, it sapped away at their strength. But maybe that was the point: run their staff ragged enough that they'd be too exhausted to question the various gaping holes in logic. "Shouldn't a place as grand as Satellite Five have basic air conditioning?"

"I don't know, we keep asking. Something to do with the turbine."

"'Something to do with the turbine,'" the Doctor mocked.

"Well, I don't know!"

"Exactly! I give up on you, Cathica. Now Rey—look at Rey. Rey is asking the right kind of questions. Why is it so hot?"

"One minute you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central heating," Cathica complained.

"Never underestimate plumbing," Rose told her.

"Rose's right. See? Helpful." The blonde shot Rey a haughty grin behind the Doctor's back as he accidently snapped a handful of wires. Exasperated, Cathica looked away. It was a quick fix with the sonic, and a few minutes later, the Doctor successfully hacked into the mainframe. He angled the screen so they could all see. "Here we go, Satellite Five. Pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout."

Cathica studied it with a huff. "This is ridiculous. You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange… and you're looking at pipes?"

"But there's something wrong," he said, hoping to get her to figure it out.

"I suppose…"

"What, what is it," Rose asked.

"The ventilation system. Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out… channeling massive amounts of heat down," she explained.

Rey glanced up at the ceiling. "It's coming from all the way up there. Floor 500."

"Something up there is generating tonnes and tonnes of heat," the Doctor confirmed.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm missing out on a party," Rose said with a playful smirk. "It's all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?"

"You can't," Cathica reminded them. "You need a key."

"Yes, whatever should we do," Rey asked sarcastically. "Never mind that keys are just codes, and we have direct access to the mainframe." He gestured for her to have a go at the network. A few short commands types in later and presto. "There: override 215.9."

"How come it's giving you the code?"

"Someone up there likes us," the Doctor said with a frown. She noted his position—he'd taken a step to the left to block her from the security camera's view. She pursed her lips, not knowing if she wanted to thank him or frown. It was nice that he wanted to protect her, but there wasn't much point in that. Their tampering had already been noticed, and he himself had been clearly caught on the recording.

Cathica refused to come with them in the lift. She wanted to keep her head down, convinced that they were going to get in trouble. Rey thought that if she wasn't going to see it through all the way, she might as well not have gotten herself involved in the first place.

"That's her gone," the Doctor noted as she stormed off. "Adam's given up. Looks like it's just you, me, and Rey."

"Yeah."

"Good."

"Yup." Rose shot him a grin that was partially forced, and gave Rey a wide berth. It wasn't as if they were ever particularly close to begin with. In fact, they got along best when they weren't forced to interact a lot. But Rose had never acted like this before. She usually made an effort to be somewhat civil, and it wasn't just Rey's imagination that there an undercurrent of fear in her reactions?

But why? What could've happened to make Rose scared of her?

The lift quickly climbed up to Floor 500. As they got higher and higher, the change in temperature was markedly apparent. It was the complete opposite of the sauna downstairs—the top level was cold to the point of freezing.

"The walls are not made of gold," the Doctor observed as they stepped off the lift. Ice and frost were slowly overtaking everything. "You should go back downstairs," he told Rose.

"Tough." She strutted down the corridor.

They passed a few rooms that would've been mirror copies of the spike room downstairs if not for the damage by the cold and disuse. Plastic sheeting covered the equipment with dust and grime frozen over everything. At the end of the corridor, a man dressed in a suit waited for them in the single room still in use. At first, Rey thought the workers were just starting to suffer from frostbite. It wasn't until she spotted Suki that she realized the reason they were so pale and stiff was because they were dead.

The Editor watched the board of screens in front of him in false cheer. "I started without you. This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you three… you don't exist!" He laughed like it was the most hilarious joke he had ever heart. "Not a trace! No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?"

"Suki! Suki!" Rose rushed to the girl, kneeling by her side. She got no response. "Hello? Can you hear me? Suki? What've you done to her?!"

"She's dead, Rose," the Doctor said sadly.

"She's working…"

"They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going," he explained. "Like puppets."

"Ohhh! You're full of information! But it's only fair we get information back, because apparently, you're no one." The Editor laughed. "It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter, 'cause we're off. Nice to meet you." He took Rey's hand and motioned for Rose to follow. They barely got two steps away when two of the worker drones restrained him. Another two grabbed Rey with grips like iron clasps. Suki nabbed Rose with one hand, the other keeping her connected and still working.

"Tell me who you are!"

"Why would we tell you when that information is what's keeping us alive," Rey shot back. She struggled to get free but only succeeded in giving herself more bruises.

"Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise."

"And who's that," the Doctor asked.

The Editor grinned like he had been just waiting for that exact question. His pearly white teeth, bleached hair, and pale skin made it look like he was trying to blend into his surroundings if not for the bright blue shade of his suit and his obnoxious personality. Rey wouldn't put it past him to have chosen it exactly for the contrast it provided.

"It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live." Something above them roared, shaking the entire room. "Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client." He snapped and pointed up at the ceiling. A giant blob of an alien was literally installed into it, upper half hanging upside down. It was lumpy and slobbering and bore a mouth full of two rows of sharp, snapping teeth.

"What is that," Rose asked nervously.

"You mean, that thing's in charge of Satellite Five," the Doctor asked, horrified.

"That 'thing,' as you put it, is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, its knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by its broadcast news. Edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light: the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadropassic, Maxarodenfoe." The creature roared. "I call him Max."

"Good to know," Rey remarked sarcastically.

They were forced into restraints. Metal manacles bit into her wrists as they snapped shut. The bar connecting them ran overhead, keeping their hands strictly shoulder width apart. The Editor ranted the entire time, which Rey thought was nearly worse than being restrained. "If we create a climate of fear… then it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy… invent an enemy… change a vote…"

"So all the people on Earth are like slaves," Rose concluded.

"Well, now. That's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"

"Yes," the Doctor and Rey answered at the same time.

"Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?"

"Yes," the Doctor repeated.

"You're no fun," the Editor whined. "But come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."

"You can't hide something on this scale," Rose reasoned. "Somebody must've noticed."

"From time to time, someone, yes. But the computer system allows me to see inside their brain… I can see the smallest doubt and crush it." He grinned. Rey glanced over at Suki's back. Was she one of the doubters? Was that why she had been suddenly promoted to Floor 500? "And then they just carry on, living their life. Strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual. When of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."

A flash of movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was Cathica, hovering about behind the Editor, just outside the room. She looked to see if the others had noticed and caught the Doctor's gaze. He glanced up, then down at the floor—a subtle sign that he was thinking of a plan.

"What about you? You're not a Jagra… uh… a…" Rose faltered.

"Jagrafess," she supplied.

"Jagrafess. You're not a Jagrafess. You're human."

"Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well."

"But you couldn't have done this all on your own."

"No! I represent a consortium of banks." Of course. Rey should've guessed. There was no limit to how much money could corrupt. "Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to, um… install himself."

"No wonder," the Doctor said. "A creature that size. What's his lifespan?"

"Three thousand years."

"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat."

"That's why Satellite Five is so hot," Rey reasoned. She picked up on the Doctor's plan and hoped Cathica also got the message. "You pump the heat out of here and channel it downstairs. 'Max' gets to stay nice and cool and alive. This satellite isn't just for you to manipulate the news. It's also a life support system."

"But _that's_ why you're so dangerous: knowledge is power, but you remain unknown." The Editor snapped his fingers and an electric shock ran through all three of them. "Who are you?"

Rey grunted, teeth clenched, and knees locked o they wouldn't give out beneath her. This moment felt like all the previous times she had been tased combined. Wave after wave of white hot pain struck her. In the back of her mind, she remembered something about ECT, bits, and cracking teeth, but it all escaped her now.

"Leave them alone," the Doctor shouted. The shock cut off as quickly as it had started. "I'm the Doctor, this is Rey and Rose Tyler. We're nothing, we're just wandering."

"Tell me who you are," the Editor insisted as he activated the device to send another jolt of electricity through them.

"I just did!"

"Yeah, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly…" Like a flip of a switch, he suddenly went from demanding to gleeful. "Time Lord." The Doctor paled. "Oh, yes! The last of the Time Lords in his traveling machine. Oh, with his little human girl from long ago… And you." He turned to Rey. "The girl with no name who fell through time. Always early or late, always out of order; how do you do it?"

"You don't know what you're talking about," the Doctor tried insisting.

"Time travel."

"Someone's been telling you lies."

"Young master Adam Mitchell?" He clicked his fingers again. On command, a projection of Adam writhing in the chair of a spike room appeared before them. At some point, he'd had a door installed in his head. It was wide open now as a beam of compressed information flooded him.

"Oh my God," Rose gasped. "His head!"

"What the hell's he done," the Doctor angrily asked. "What the hell's he gone and done? They're reading his mind. He's telling them everything!"

"And through him, I know everything about you," the Editor gloated. "Every piece of information in his head is mine. I know what happens to your dear Rey. I know that you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your T-A-R-D-I-S. TARDIS."

"You'll never get your hands on it. I'll die first."

"Die all you like, I don't need you. I've got a key." In the projection, a silver TARDIS key slipped out of Adam's pocket and dangled in the air.

"You and your boyfriends," the Doctor complained to Rose.

"Today, we are the headlines," the Editor announced. "We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing."

"And no one's going to stop," the Doctor claimed, trying to spur Cathica into action. "Because you've bred a human race that doesn't even bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughterhouse if they're told it's made of gold."

When the alarm went off a minute later, it caught the Editor completely by surprise. He frantically ordered the worker drones to figure out what was going on and stop it.

"Someone's disengaged the safety." He clicked his fingers again, and the projection switched to show Cathica this time. She was using the spike room on Floor 500, giving her maximum access to the whole of Satellite Five. "What's that?!"

"It's Cathica," Rose exclaimed.

"And she's thinking," the Doctor said. "She's using what she knows!"

"Terminate her access!"

"Everything we told her about Satellite Five—the pipes, the filters, she's reversing it!"

"Would you look at that," Rey noted plainly, gazing up as the icicles hanging from the ceiling. They were beginning to melt. "It's getting hot."

"I said terminate," the Editor screamed. "Burn her mind." He slammed his own hands over Suki's, trying to do it himself. Thankfully, it backfired as the screens all suddenly exploded, showering the room with sparks and broken glass. The drones slumped, like marionettes with their strings cut. More alarms started going off as the entire satellite shuddered.

The Jagrafess, useless and helpless, screamed above them. The Doctor chuckled as the Editor tried to explain what was going on like he was still in control. "Yes! Uh… I'm trying sir, but I don't know how she did it, it's impossible. A member of staff with an idea…"

Rose's manacles abruptly unlocked. As the Editor fruitlessly tried to get the drones to sit back up, she shoved her hand into the Doctor's jacket, searching for the sonic. Above them, the Jagrafess continued to snap and snarl and roar. "What do I do?"

"Flick and swish," Rey yelled over all the noise. She didn't like the way the alien above them kept twitching and shuddering. Dying in a Jagrafess avalanche was not how she wanted to leave the world.

The sonic buzzed, freeing the Doctor. He took back his screwdriver and quickly released Rey before ushering them out of the room. Before he left, he turned back to the Editor. "Oi, mate, wanna bank on certainty? Massive heat in a massive body—massive bang!" As if on cue, chunks of the Jagrafess's flesh began to rain down. "See you in the headlines!"

Rey pulled him out as the body began to pulse. They ran hand in hand, dodging snowfalls as the temperature skyrocketed and everything began to melt. When they got to the spike room, he clicked his fingers to free Cathica from the stream that was starting to overwhelm her.

Taking the lift back down to Floor 139 was a surreal experience. The observation window showed that the sun was just beginning to rise on the side of the planet facing the satellite. Everyone else was still in shock over all the commotion, trying to process having everything they knew proven wrong. "We're just gonna go," the Doctor told Cathica. "I hate tidying up. Too many questions." That was going to bite them back someday, Rey knew, but she figured once more couldn't hurt. Of course, she thought that every time she and the Doctor left things a quarter unresolved. "You'll manage."

"You have to stay," Cathica insisted. "No one's gonna believe me."

"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now," the Doctor said. "The human race should accelerate. All back to normal."

"What about your friend?" She nodded at Adam. He was loitering away from them by the TARDIS. He hadn't said a word since they found him, passed out in the chair in a spike room.

"He's not our friend." Rey shifted a little closer to him so that their arms were brushing. He squeezed his hands into fists at his side but smiled back at her faintly before marching over to Adam.

"Now, don't…" Rose tried, but the Doctor ignored her.

Adam was observant enough to notice the tension and anger the Doctor was brimming with. He wasn't smart enough to know when to apologize or stop talking. "I'm alright now. Much better. I've got the key. Well, it's… I know… it all worked out for the best, didn't it?"

The Doctor snatched the key from his hand as he laughed nervously. Without a word, he grabbed a handful of Adam's shirt and shoved him into the TARDIS. Stony silence filled the space between Satellite Five and Adam's suburban home in Manchester. As soon as they landed, materializing in the middle of the living room, the Doctor shoved him back out. Rey and Rose followed them, staying back out of the way.

"It's my house," Adam exclaimed. "I'm home! Oh my God, I'm home! Blimey. I thought you were gonna chuck me out of an airlock."

"Is there something else you want to tell us," the Doctor asked with a vicious glare.

"No, um… What do you mean?"

He walked over to the landline and picked up the answering machine. "The archive of Satellite Five. One second of that message could've changed the world." At least Adam had the decency to look guilty. But whether it was guilty for doing it or guilty for being caught was hard to tell. Personally, she felt he was leaning towards the later. The Doctor fried the device, effectively erasing the message. "That's it, then. See ya." He grabbed Rey's gloved hand as he passed, moving to lead her back into the TARDIS.

"How do you mean, 'see ya'," Adam asked.

"As in 'goodbye'."

"But… What about me? You can't just go, I've got my head—I've got a chip type two. My head opens!"

"What, like this?" The Doctor snapped his fingers and the doors in Adam's head opened.

"Don't." Adam clicked them shut.

"Don't do what?" He snapped again.

"Stop it!" Adam closed them again.

"Alright now, Doctor, that's enough," Rose interjected. "Stop it." Adam thanked her only to gape when she clicked her fingers.

"Oi!"

She sniggered. "Sorry, I couldn't resist."

"You could've changed the whole of human history," the Doctor scolded. "Weren't you listening when Rey warned you about spoilers?"

"I just wanted to help," Adam protested without fully looking at them.

"Yes, you wanted to help yourself."

He glared, but backed down when the Doctor raised his hand, fingers ready to click again. "I'm sorry. I've said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am, but you can't just leave me like this."

"Yes we can. 'Cos if you show your head to anyone, they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quiet life. Keep out of trouble. Be average. Unseen. Good luck." The Doctor held the doors open for her.

"But I wanna come with you!"

"I only take the best. I've got Rey and Rose."

"Oh, so _she_ gets to go with you?!" Now he was mad, red faced and near breathless with what he viewed as righteous anger. "Even after what _she_ did? Rose, come on, how can you be alright with staying around her? You told me how nervous she makes you! You don't even know her proper name! She's a monster—"

The Doctor was suddenly looming in front of Adam's face, glowering down at the other man with pure fury. He was so angry he was shaking. "Don't you _dare_ talk about her that way." For a single moment, Rey thought he might actually resort to violence. But then he collected himself, breathing in deep and turning on his heel. Not bothering to spare Adam one final glance, he stormed back over to Rey who was standing frozen in the TARDIS doorway.

He looked at her so tenderly, so sadly, and she knew that whatever they were keeping from her, it was important and her fault. Her skin tingled where his hand hovered, like butterfly wings millimetres from her face. He looked at her as if she were glass one wrong touch away from shattering, and she internalized that sentiment against her will.

She had never had so much difficulty reading someone as she did now, and she never wanted to see as much as she did now. But it was like sand slipping from her fingers. It was like trying to bottle mist.

In the beginning, the Doctor's distance had been like a gift. Once she got past worrying and realized that he wouldn't hurt her or keep things from her to be cruel, she even enjoyed it. What a relief not to have to regret seeing too much. She didn't have to worry about falling too deep into someone else, to the point where she wondered where they ended and she began.

But something had changed. She didn't know what, and she didn't know how or when. Maybe things had always been this way and she simply never noticed. Somewhere along the line, she found herself not just wanting to understand him better, but also not wanting to pull away once she reached that understanding. She saw something new every time she met him, and every time she wanted more.

Except now. Except here. For the first time, she didn't know if she wanted to know.

The Doctor came to a decision. His hand dropped and he led her inside.

Oddly subdued, Rose followed silently, shutting the doors behind her so they could take off. The TARDIS shuddered, the only sound in the room until Rey broke the terse silence. "What happened?" She looked to Rose, knowing that the Doctor wouldn't answer her. She had obviously done something, and something bad at that. He would want to protect her from it, but Rose didn't hold her in such high regard.

"Spoilers," the Doctor said bitterly, just like she predicted he would.

"Don't give me that," she argued. "If I did something bad, then just tell me."

"You haven't done it yet."

She gave Rose an imploring look. "Tell me. _Please._ "

And that, it seemed, was the straw that broke the camel's back. "You hurt the Doctor."

Suddenly, Rey felt like she was back on Floor 500 with the cooling systems running on full blast. Or like she was in the middle of a jump with the floor ripped out from under her and an all-encompassing numbness. "What…?"

The words rushed out of Rose like floodwater through a broken dam. "You attacked him. You just lost it and _shot_ him. You nearly strangled him and then—"

" _Rose!_ "

She jumped. Neither of them had never heard the Doctor speak so harshly before. The intensity he had shown Adam just moments ago paled in comparison to how he spat out her name. Her eyes burned with tears—it wasn't fair that he'd spoken to her that way, not after all that they'd been through. She was the one who stayed, who didn't keep secrets from him and from whom he didn't need to keep secrets from. But every time it was like she was never good enough. He always picked Rey over her, even when she lied to him or refused to let him touch her. What was so great about her? They didn't even know her real name—how could he trust her over Rose?

Rey was caught in a whirlwind of emotions that weren't all her own but all of them hers nevertheless. She wished she could feel numb right now. Numbness would have been a blessing. It had to be a lie, right? It didn't make any sense. Why would she attack the Doctor? Rose had to be lying, that was the only logical explanation. But she didn't even need to look at Rose's eyes to know that she wasn't.

"Rey…"

She ignored him and thought back. He had been tense all day. He was overly affected by the shocks from the restraints. He stuck close to her, as if he were trying to cover up something and was overcompensating—the signs were all there, how had she not noticed? The skin of his neck was just a tad off—Time Lord physiology meant it took a lot for the Doctor to bruise, and advanced medical treatment meant that it took even more to leave behind a mark. How badly had she hurt him?

Rey shut her eyes and, for the first time, desperately wished this was all just a dream.

When she opened them, she was back in Nevermore.


	9. Interlude 1

**What? Two weeks and such a short chapter? Heh heh... Well, this is more of a mini-update, hence the title.** **I promise the next chapter will be out sooner, and we'll be back to our usual length.**

* * *

Session One:

"How are you feeling?"

Dr. Usher was using his Soft Voice. It was the "special voice" doctors and nurses used when they needed to corral the more volatile patients. Or the more fragile ones. That last bit, more than the insincerity it dripped with, irritated her. Like most people, he conflated fragility with inferiority.

"You've been asleep for a long time. I bet your legs appreciate the stretch." Her legs were currently curled up against her chest. She sat in a fetal position with her chin tucked on her knees.

"I know things must be confusing for you, with the sudden move. Change can be unsettling when it's unexpected. But you understand why we had to move you to the Institute, don't you?"

His office was just like him: cold and impersonal. The walls were beige. The furniture was new-like and industrially practical. A bookshelf stood at the back wall behind his giant desk. All the books in it were medical texts of some sort. A short row of frames lined one of the walls. Headshots of former patients, the "success stories" smiled back. Next to them were diplomas and certificates, all screaming "look at how great I am!"

Rey hated everything from the boring carpet to the stiff chairs. The cushions were hard and not at all comfortable. She hated how the AC was cranked up so that she was always cold. She hated how Dr. Usher needed to flaunt his education and triumph, as if he could cow her into fitting whatever mold he had by showing them off.

"The nurses tell me you haven't been eating much. Your throat and stomach have healed enough to handle solid food by now. You won't get better if you don't eat. Is there something you'd prefer? I can't make any promises, but I can talk to the cook."

She stared at the black and white swirls on the rug. Perhaps it was meant to evoke some sense of yin and yang, but all it reminded Rey of were cows and zebras. Plus, Dr. Usher wasn't Asian. There was nothing else in the room to suggest he studied or understood Chinese philosophy either.

No matter how many times she told him she preferred Rey, Dr. Usher always called her by her first name. He did so now too, hoping to spur her into any response. "You won't get getter if you don't talk to me."

She closed her eyes.

* * *

Session Two:

"I'm glad to see you've been keeping up with your journals." He picked up one of the blue books. "Though I must say, you're going through these rather fast. And the content… Fiction has its cathartic uses, but I'm not sure they're the best for you."

The journals in question were relatively new. Dr. Usher had introduced the idea a few months before the earthquake, but Rey hadn't had any clue what to write in them. After all, it wasn't as if anything really happened to her. After the earthquake, however, she started using them to keep track of everything. Timelines were too convoluted to keep solely in her head, so she wrote them down. The so-called fictional stories Dr. Usher disapproved of were her adventures with the Doctor.

If it were up to her, he wouldn't get to read her entries at all. Journals were supposed to be personal and private. Unfortunately, it wasn't up to her. He checked them periodically as part of her therapy, and she had a feeling that he showed them to the Madame when she came by for reports.

The Madame never said anything about it, of course, but she'd gotten a strange look in her eye. Rey had gotten a weird sense of irritation, apprehension, and satisfaction, like she'd just salvaged a plan that had almost gone off the rails.

"I'm curious about this 'Doctor' character. I have to say, as a doctor myself I can't really approve of him one bit."

Rey ignored him and shaded in her sketch a little darker. She was trying to draw Tricey, but it was hard to get all the intricacies right when all she had was a number 2 pencil with a dull tip to work with. She was nowhere skilled enough to draw any of her other friends, and drawings of people always felt a little flat to her anyway.

Besides, she didn't want to give Dr. Usher any more ammunition.

He stepped closer. There was still a good half foot of space between them, but it still felt like he was too close. "I understand that you want to leave. In fact, it's admirable how you still want to get back out into the world after all this time. But the only way I can let you out in good conscious is if you cooperate. You have to make an effort -."

There he went again, using her name. Why was it so difficult for him to call her Rey? It was a single syllable and only three letters long.

"I'm serious, -. -? Put the pencil down and look at me when I talk to you."

Her pencil stilled. For half a second, she debated with herself. _Don't look_ , the dominant, rebellious part of her mind urged. _Don't give in_. The change was subtle, but she knew what happened when his tone shifted like that.

In the end, this time was no different than all the times before. Rey put the pencil down. She was careful to align it exactly parallel to the journal—she was always more particular about these sorts of things when she felt stressed—and turned towards him. She didn't look him in the eye, not just because she didn't want to see him, but also because it felt like the last bit of resistance she had.

"This has to stop. This fantasy you have, this Doctor. It's not helpful to your treatments. You do want to get better don't you?"

She didn't move; didn't nod, didn't blink. He took her silence as agreement and continued. "If you insist on continuing with this absurd delusion then I'm afraid we'll just have to resort to more intensive measures."

He paused for a beat, daring her to act out and giving him an excuse to get started right away. Happy with her apparent compliance, Dr. Usher took on that same Soft Voice he favoured. "Rather than some fictitious Doctor that shames the title, won't you put your trust in me -? I only want what's best for you."

* * *

Session Nine:

"That's it."

Dr. Usher signaled to an orderly. The large man with hands like clubs reached out and tore the journal from Rey's grip. She cried out, the sound of her own voice sounding foreign to her own ears. She hadn't said a word since she came back to the Institute, and her voice was hoarse and rough from disuse.

"I've warned you," Dr. Usher said solemnly. Another orderly, as large as and even burlier than the first held her back from reaching for the journal. The blue cover—TARDIS blue—flopped haphazardly in the air. If he wasn't careful, it would tear right off.

"I warned you over and over -. But even a cat only has nine lives. Take her to B4. Maybe a few days there will change your mind."

She fought. Of course she fought. Even if she couldn't get away, even if she would still be punished, she at least wanted her journal back. But fighting only gave her more bruises in the end. The orderlies tossed her into the padded cell carelessly. The door sealed shut before she could even get up.

White walls. A white floor and a white ceiling. A white straightjacket to drive the lesson home. Rey settled into the far corner of the room, pulled her legs up to her chest as best she could with the awkward restraints, and closed her eyes.

* * *

The Doctor clanged around the console room with no small amount of frustration. He was tinkering again. There was always something to tinker with in the TARDIS, but not even that could calm him. He wasn't angry per say, except he was. At nothing and everything, like no one and the entire universe had done him wrong all at once. He hated these moods, where there was no easy target for his frustrations.

His argument with Rose still had him frazzled and worked up despite a good few hours having already passed since. They fought about Rey. Of course it was about Rey. Or at least, it started out that way. Other pent up issues quickly made their appearance. Rose brought up his favouritism—which he denied because he _didn't_ play favorites—and he brought up her less than honest intentions when she started traveling with them. He argued that Rey couldn't be blamed for things she hadn't done yet and she countered with all the times the Doctor had let something slip.

In the end she'd stormed off, and he'd let her go, because they both needed some time apart to cool off. A part of him knew that for all their yelling, there were still things left unsaid. As much as it pained him to admit it, he could be a little thick sometimes. But not even he was that blind. He knew that Rose had feelings for him, a mix of admiration and awe that was developing into attraction of the romantic variety. And maybe even a bit of conflating him with how she always imagined her dad to be like. But he also knew that he could never think of her that way. She was a friend, a companion, and she'd helped him so much in ways he would forever be thankful for and could never pay back, but that was it. He maybe even loved her, but not in the way she wanted. Not in that sense.

When had things gotten so complicated?

And speaking of complicated, he still needed to figure out what the hell was going on with Rey. He cursed his future self—what was he doing? Nothing, that's what. Or worse, failing. How could he have let that happen to Rey? He cursed his present self as well—why couldn't he figure it out? He was supposed to be a clever man, so why wasn't he clever enough to figure this out?

With a huff, he threw down a section of the grating that made up the floor surrounding the console. It clanged loudly, echoing in the empty room. All he was doing was making things worse at this point, and wasn't that just the story of his lives? It was a sure sign that things had gotten too far when even tinkering didn't help.

It happened so quietly that were he anyone else, he would have missed it. Then again, it wasn't as if he could miss her jumps. It wasn't just the change in the air, like a ripple in time—he had just gotten so used to her presence that the difference between her advent and absence was unmistakable.

Rey appeared a few feet away in his blind spot. He turned with the usual question already halfway out of his mouth before he noticed that something was wrong.

 _Where to next?_ It was what he always asked, and her answers always varied. Sometimes she wanted adventure and sometimes she wanted relaxation. Sometimes all she wanted was to go to her room to sleep, and sometimes she was content to just read in the library with him.

The Rey who was with him now wasn't the same Rey who had left so abruptly. She was older. Her face hadn't changed, but her hair was longer and she looked at him more directly than Rey did when she was younger. But that wasn't what had caught his attention. It was as if a cloud of sadness was hanging onto her. He could see it in her eyes, in how pale her face was and how closely she tried to guard it. Rey wasn't the most emotive person, but the Doctor had become well versed in reading the little changes in her expression. Right now, she was all but screaming at him.

She took a step towards him before her legs gave out. He rushed forward and caught her before she could hit the ground. Spoilers be damned, he had to know what happened. How could he have let her end up in this state?

"Doctor…" Her voice was hoarse like she either hadn't spoken for a while or had used it too much. She was shaking, and with her in his arms like this he could feel that she had lost a lot of weight recently. What worried him the most was how she reached out to touch him like she was scared he wasn't real. Her eyes were shiny and watery like she was holding back tears, and she was looking directly in his eyes, searching for something in his face. "Help me, please."


	10. The Impossible Planet

**Aw man, am I a sucker for your attention or what?**

 **AKA In Which Impossible is Just Another Word for Now**

* * *

Rey went back in the end. There was no choice between Nevermore and the TARDIS—she would always choose to go back to her home, to go back to the Doctor, every time. The only variable was how long she was away. It was hard to keep track of days in the cell. She got two meals at varying times, if that. Food was brought to her, but the straightjacket made eating difficult.

Sometimes, a nurse fed her. She had long since grown numb to that sort of humiliation, but depending on the nurse, her meals were often cut short. She'd manage a few bites, enough that she wouldn't starve, before the tray was ripped away and she was left once more in the boring cell all by her lonesome.

She slept a lot. When she couldn't manage sleep, she made do by reciting articles and even entire books from memory. It was times like these that made her grateful for her mind. But eventually even that wasn't enough to keep her away. Eventually, Rey closed her eyes and when she opened them, she was home.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

She nodded and softened her gaze. The Doctor was a calming presence by her side, surefire and definite. The sun made his blue suit look like it was glowing, and his floppy hair made him look softer. She loved traveling with the Doctor, loved the excitement and hijinks and even the inevitable pandemonium they always managed to stumble into. But the quiet moments like this held a special place in her heart.

She had reached a resolution before returning. Whatever happened that caused her to attack the Doctor, it hadn't happened for her yet. She could act normal and keep her eyes peeled; look for the signs and when she found the cause, change it. Perhaps she even succeeded. The future Doctors she met never mentioned her acting strangely or attacking him. He'd told her once that sometimes just knowing the future changed it. Was she a fool for hoping that was the case now?

Probably. Her luck was always terrible.

A familiar numbness started setting in. She sighed, hoping to preserve this moment of peace a bit longer but knowing it was futile. He, of course, noticed the shift in her demeanor. "I'll see you soon," she said, and then she jumped before she could hear his response.

* * *

Rey had resolved to act normal, but she wasn't prepared for the weirdness that she encountered when she landed. She prepared herself for a confrontation, for stony silence or harsh judgment. Not… this.

Rose was acting almost friendly.

Rey had no idea what to make of it. It wasn't as though she had jumped that much further in the future. What had changed? How had they gotten to this point? Not even her imagination was able to fill in the blanks from then to now.

Whatever it was, she was grateful. As if a great pressure had been relieved, she felt lighter. It had felt like she was constantly tiptoeing before, forever waiting for the levee to break. In hindsight, she realized she'd begun to regard Rose as she might Dr. Usher or one of the nurses. But now, once she'd gotten over the sheer bizarreness, she could relax.

The TARDIS landed roughly, groaning and wheezing. "I dunno what's wrong with her," the Doctor told them worriedly. "She's sort of… queasy. Indigestion, like she didn't wanna land."

Rey held back a sigh and was glad she wore her running shoes today. She could already see where this was headed.

"Oh, if you think there's gonna be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else," Rose said seriously before she and the Doctor burst out laughing.

"Are we in a cupboard," Rey asked. There wasn't much space to move around. It was a miracle that they all even fit.

"Here we go!" The Doctor pushed the door open to lead them out into a much bigger room. They were on a base of some sort, and definitely in the future. "Moon base, sea base, space base… they build these things out of kits," he nonchalantly remarked as they wandered further in. A computer announced the door numbers as they opened and closed. They could barely hear it over all the noise.

"Glad we're indoors—sounds like a storm out there…"

"Or one hell of a party," Rey suggested offhandedly. It earned her a small grin from Rose, which she quietly relished in. They weren't suddenly the best of friends, but it was a huge improvement considering how they started out.

"Human design—you've got a thing about kits. This place was put together like a flat-pack wardrobe, only bigger, and easier."

"This is a sanctuary base," she noted as they entered Habitation Area Three, also known as the mess room. She'd read about them in one of the many history texts in the library. They were built for deep space exploration.

The Doctor beamed proudly at her. "Couldn't've put it better myself. We've gone way out. And listen to that, underneath…" He pointed to the floor and fell quiet so they could hear the hum. "Someone's drilling."

"'Welcome to hell,'" Rey read off the wall.

The Doctor suddenly looked worried. "Oh, it's not that bad," Rose protested.

She pointed to the writing, her gut twisting into knots at the sight of the strange symbols drawn beneath. The TARDIS had a few glitches when it came to translating languages, most notably when it had to deal with a language isolate or something that relied on nonverbal language. She purposefully didn't translate Gallefreyan because she didn't need to. But Rey had never seen the TARDIS fail to translate written words before.

"Hold on… what does that say?" The Doctor walked over to take a closer look at the symbols. He squinted at them as if to will them to translate to English, but they stubbornly stayed the same. "That's weird. It won't translate."

Even Rose was starting to get nervous now.

"If that's not working, then it means… this writing is old. Very old. Impossibly old." He moved over to the other door. "We should find out who's in charge. We've gone beyond the reach of the TARDIS's knowledge. Not a good move. And if someone's lucky enough—"

"Or unfortunate enough," she interjected.

"Open Door 19."

The Doctor and Rose both gasped and flinched back in shock. Rey blinked, but otherwise didn't show any sign of alarm. It was just a group of Ood, and not even rabid or red-eyed ones at that. But they were processed, that much she could tell from the orbs in their hands. She recalled the Doctor's words from her first adventure with him. Was this the "last time" he'd spoken about?

"We must feed," they said in unison.

The Doctor blanched. He reached out to grab Rey's wrist, pulling her back behind him. "You're gonna what?"

"We must feed," they repeated.

"Yeah. I think they mean us," Rose said nervously.

"Well you're not wrong." Rey went to explain, but was cut short when the Doctor pulled her with him to make for the other door. Another group of Ood were on the other side, walking slowly in as if to surround them. "But not in the way you're thinking," she added.

"We must feed."

"What does that mean," Rose asked in a strangled voice. She picked up a chair while the Doctor pulled out the sonic.

"We must feed. We must feed. We must feed."

One of the Ood shook and tapped the translation orb. "You. If you are hungry."

"Sorry?" Confused, the Doctor's outstretched arm faltered slightly, but he refused to put the sonic down completely until he was certain they weren't in any danger.

"We apologize. Electromagnetics have interfered with our speech systems." Rose put the chair down slowly. "Would you like some refreshments?"

"Um…"

Rey reached out to lower the Doctor's arm for him. He looked back at her for confirmation. "The Ood are normally very kind," she assured them both.

"Open Door 18," the computer announced.

Jefferson, head of security, faltered when he saw the three of them. He was flanked by two guards, each holding guns at the ready. "What the hell…? How did…?"

He approached them cautiously and pulled out his communication device to report back to his superior. "Captain… you're not going to believe this. We've got _people_. Out of nowhere. I mean, real people. I mean three… living… people. Just standing here, right in front of me."

The three exchanged glances, not quite sure what was going on.

"Don't be stupid," Zach, the captain, said back. "That's impossible."

"I suggest telling them that," Jefferson replied without taking his eyes off them.

"But you're a sort of space base," Rose pointed out. "You must have visitors now and then. It can't be that impossible."

"You're telling me you don't know where you are?"

The Doctor grinned. "No idea. More fun that way."

"Stand by, everyone." Scooti, the maintenance officer trainee, spoke over the intercom. "Buckle down. We have incoming. And it's a big one. Quake Point 5 on its way."

Rey froze at the word "quake." No sooner had Scooti given the warning did the base begin to shake. She gripped the Doctor's arm tighter, her entire body a tense coil. His thumb rubbed soothing circles against the fabric covering her while he tried his best to steady her.

Sirens began to sound off. She head Jefferson usher them through another door in a distant, detached way where she didn't really register his words. It was only thanks to the Doctor leading her that she made it through the corridor and into the control room. Not even the smoke and flying sparks could snap her out of her stupor. All she could focus on was the shaking and the way her breaths were getting shorter and shorter like she was running out of air.

She shut her eyes and thought back to the trip she recently had with the Doctor. They'd had a picnic in a clearing by the river. The grass had been sea green in color, and the air was light with the scent of fresh rain. The river flowed swift and smooth, the sound of the water a soothing white noise in the background. The planet had been wonderful to explore. There was a continent forever in twilight, one where rain fell upwards, and one where enormous plants made them feel as small as ants.

But that glade the Doctor had brought her to was the place she liked the most. Winter came there with such speed that the flowers didn't even have time to wilt before freezing over. It passed with equal celerity so that they could continue growing afterwards as if someone had simply hit play on a paused video.

He was looking at her with worry when she opened her eyes, but all it took was a sure nod to reassure him that she was alright.

Inside the control room, the small crew was frantically working. Zach, Science Officer Ida, and archeologist Toby all dropped their jaws in shock when they noticed the new additions to the base. The Doctor beamed back.

"Oh my God. You meant it."

"People," Scooti exclaimed. "Look at that! Real people!"

"That's us," the Doctor cheered. "Hooray!"

Rose smiled. "Yeah, definitely real. My name's Rose… Rose Tyler, this is the Doctor and— and Rey."

Ethics Committee Representative Danny marched over to them, still in denial. "Come on… the oxygen must be offline. We're hallucinating. They can't be… no. They're real!"

"Of course we are. Are you," Rey shot back. She didn't like the way the crew was scrutinizing them. It made her feel rather like a science experiment.

"Come _on_ ," Zach insisted. "We're in the middle of an alert! Danny, strap up, the quake's coming in! Impact in thirty seconds!" Rey paled at the thought of another quake. A countdown appeared on the computer screen. "Sorry you three, whoever you are. Just… hold on. Tight."

"Hold on to what," Rose asked.

"Anything. I don't care. Just hold on. Ood, are we fixed?"

Rey braced herself against the railing, gloved hands clinging to the bar with a death grip. She sat down so she wouldn't lose her balance and fall over. The Doctor moved to box her in, keeping her securely in place. Rose grasped the other railing as the Ood responded that they were secure. "What's this planet called, anyway," the Doctor asked.

Ida scoffed. "Now, don't be stupid. It hasn't got a name. How could it have a name?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "You really don't know, do you?"

"And… IMPACT!"

Zach's warning came half a second before the shaking started again. Rey tightened her hold, knuckles white and the skin covering them threatening to split. One of the consoles exploded, showering that side of the room with sparks. The others were tossed around like leaves in a storm and she would have joined them if it wasn't for the Doctor. His presence at her back was warm, anchoring her in more than one way. She didn't think about the hospital or the Institute, only him and the clearing by the river.

Fortunately, it was all over rather quickly. She waited until the aftershock passed before standing on shaking legs. Jefferson hurried with a fire extinguisher as soon as Zach gave the all-clear. "Everyone alright?" Obediently, they all echoed back with no lasting damage.

The base itself had also managed to scrape by mostly intact, but the surface had caved in on them. Zach pulled up images on the screen to show which parts of the base had been lost. "I deflected it only Storage 5 through 8. We've lost them completely. Toby, go and check the rocket link."

"That's not my department," he protested. He grudgingly left when Zach snapped at him to just do it.

"Oxygen holding," Ida reported. "Internal gravity 56.6. We should be okay."

Rose looked around the room. "Never mind the earthquake, that's… that's one hell of a storm. What is that, a hurricane?"

"You'd need an atmosphere for a hurricane," Scooti corrected. "There's no air out there. It's a complete vacuum."

"Then what's shaking the roof?"

"You're not joking. You really don't know," Ida asked. She ran through a series of quick introductions wandering over to another set of controls. "This… this is home."

"Brace yourselves," Zach warned as she turned a lever to open the viewing port overhead. "The sight of it sends some people mad."

Dark red light shone down on the room. Above their heads hung the most breathtaking, most impossible sight Rey had ever seen. "That's a black hole," Rose gasped.

"But that's impossible," the Doctor insisted.

"I did warn you," Zach said.

Rey couldn't take her eyes off it. "We're standing under a black hole…" Saying it didn't make it feel any more real.

"We're in orbit," Ida clarified.

"But we can't be," the Doctor denied.

"You can see for yourself. We're in orbit."

"But we _can't_ be," he stressed. Without looking, Rey reached down for his hand.

"This lump of rock is suspended in perpetual geostationary orbit around that black hole without falling in. Discuss."

"And that's bad yeah," Rose asked.

"A black hole is formed when a dead star collapses in on itself to the point that the matter is so dense and tight that it starts pulling everything else in too," Rey explained. "Nothing can escape it. Light, gravity, time… everything gets pulled in and crushed."

"So, they can't be in orbit. We should be pulled right in," Rose concluded.

"We should be dead," the Doctor stated.

"And yet… here we are," Ida said, gesturing out. "Beyond the laws of physics. Welcome on board."

Rose pointed to what looked like clouds drifting by towards the black hole. "But if there's no atmosphere out there, what's that?"

"Gas clouds," Rey told her. The sight was as beautiful as it was sad. "Stars being broken up. Entire solar systems ripping apart and falling in."

"So, a bit worse than a storm, then?"

"Just a bit," she joked back.

The base started shaking again. Nothing so rough or intense as the quake from earlier, just ordinary space turbulence one would expect with what was going on outside. Even the TARDIS shook worse than this sometimes, when the piloting was particularly rough.

They were crowded around the controls when Toby returned to report that the rocket was fine. The Doctor put his glasses on as Zach tapped a command in to bring up a hologram of the black hole. Officially, it was designated K37 Gen 5. "In the scriptures of the Falltino, this planet is called 'Kroptor'," Ida told them. "The bitter pill. And the black hole is supposed to be a mighty demon. It was tricked into devouring the planet, only to spit it out. Because it was poison."

"If they were going for ominous, they succeeded," she muttered.

The Doctor stared at the hologram. "We are so far out. Lost in the drifts of the universe—how did you even _get_ here?!"

"We flew in. You see…" Zach changed the image to show the planet with what looked like a tunnel coming out of it. "This planet's generating a gravity field. We don't know how—we've no idea, but… it's kept in constant balance against the black hole. And the field extends out there. As a funnel. A distinct… gravity funnel, reaching out into clear space. That was our way in."

"You flew into that thing?" Rose grinned. "Like a rollercoaster."

"By rights, the ship should've been torn apart," Zach narrated. "We lost the Captain… which is what put me in charge…"

"You're going a good job," Ida said encouraging.

"Yeah. Well, needs must."

"But if that gravity funnel closes, there's no way out," Danny told them.

"We had fun speculating about that," Scooti chimed in.

"Oh, yeah. That's the word." He smacked her over the head with a scowl. "'Fun.'"

The Doctor slumped back. "But that field would take phenomenal amounts of power! I mean… not just big, but off the scale! Can I…" He gestured to the controls. Ida pushed the calculator over to him. Rey watched over his shoulder while an Ood offered Rose a cup.

A part of her was still angry over the Ood's treatment, but she knew she couldn't change things. She couldn't tell the Doctor—that would be a spoiler. At least there was the comfort of knowing justice would be served in the end. It still wasn't enough, however, to sooth her current guilt. She wasn't satisfied with knowing eventually things would be okay, she wanted them to be okay now.

"There we go," the Doctor said, having finished his calculations. "D'you see? To generate that gravity field, and the funnel, you'd need a power source with an inverted self-extrapolating reflex of six to the power of six every six seconds."

"That's a lot of sixes," Rose remarked.

"And it's impossible," the Doctor said again.

Zach stared at him in disbelief. "It took us two years to work that out!"

"I'm very good," he said, aiming for modest and falling short.

"But… that's why we're here," Ida explained. "This power source is ten miles below through solid rock. Point Zero. We're drilling down to try and find it."

"It's giving off readings of over ninety stats on the Blazen Scale," Zach reported. Ida was enthusiastic over all they could learn while Jefferson was more interested in what it meant as fuel for the Human Empire.

"You could start a war," Rey mumbled, seeing as how that was pretty much how all wars started: competition over resources. The Doctor nodded in solemn agreement.

"It's buried beneath us," Toby said ominously. "In the darkness, waiting."

"What's your job? Chief… dramatist?" Rose hazard a guess.

Toby looked a bit like a bird with its feathers ruffled. "Well, whatever it is down there is not a natural phenomena. And this, er, planet once supported life. Eons ago, before the human race had even learned to walk."

"I saw that lettering written on the wall. Did you do that," the Doctor asked.

He nodded. "I copied it from fragments we found on earth by the drilling, but I can't translate it."

"No, neither can I. And that's saying something."

"There was some form of civilization," Toby urged. "They buried something. Now it's reaching out. Calling us in."

The Doctor grinned at the crew. "And you came."

"Well, how could we not," Ida asked as Zach switched the hologram off.

"So, when it comes right down to it, why did you come here? Why did you do that? Why? I'll tell you why. Because it was there. Brilliant. Excuse me, ah, Zach, was it? Just stand there, 'cos I'm gonna hug you. Is that alright?"

Jefferson stared at him like he'd grown a second head. Zach shrugged. "I s'pose so."

"Here we go. Coming in." The Doctor threw his arms around Zach, still beaming. "Ahh, human beings, you are amazing!" Rose chuckled. Even Rey managed a small smile at the Doctor's antics. "But apart for that, you're completely mad. You should pack your bags and get back in that ship and fly for your lives."

"You can talk," Ida shot back. "And how the hell did you get here?"

"Oh, I've got this um… this… it's hard to explain, it just sort of… appears."

"We can show you," Rose offered. "We parked down the corridor from, um… oh, what's it called? Uh, habitation area…"

Rey's blood ran cold. She had barely registered what Zach said about which parts of the base they'd lost in her relief, but now that Rose mentioned it…

"Three," the Doctor answered.

"Do you mean storage six," Zach asked.

"Uh, it was a bit of a cupboard, yeah," he said cheerfully.

"You said storage five to eight…" She trailed off.

Without a word the Doctor made an about face and ran from the room. She was right on his heels with Rose right behind her. They dashed back through the corridors and the canteen towards where they came.

"Door 16 out of commission," the computer announced when the Doctor tried it. He slammed against the door, jabbing the button to open it to no avail.

"Can't be, can't be!"

"What's wrong," Rose asked. "What is it?" The Doctor opened the cover of small a circular window in the door to look though. "The TARDIS is in there. What's happened?"

"The TARDIS is gone."

She backed away, horrified. "This section of the base collapsed in the earthquake," Rey told her softly, coming up to stand close beside the Doctor. He reached out blindly for her and she reciprocated the gesture.

"But it's gotta be out there somewhere," Rose tried. She looked out the window to see what was on the other side.

"Look down," the Doctor advised. There was no ground left, just an enormous chasm.

They made their way back to the control room at a less frantic pace. The Doctor spoke with Zach urgently, trying to convince him to redirect the drills so they could go after the TARDIS. Unfortunately, Zach was adamant about keeping the drill on its current course. "We've got the resources to drill one central shaft down to the power source, and that's it. No diversions, no distractions— _no exceptions_. Your machine is lost. All I can do is offer you a lift if we ever get to leave this place, and that is the end of it."

As the captain left, Ida approached awkwardly. She stopped briefly to tell them that they were added to the duty roster before following Zach out of the room. With the last Ood exiting out the other door, the Doctor, Rey and Rose were left alone in the room.

He walked over and settled against the control panel by the two girls. While he had been trying to convince Zach, Rey had stuck with Rose, who was taking their predicament better than Rey had thought she would. Then again, all she had to do was look at Rose's face to see she was still in denial.

Rey wasn't sure what to think. Maybe she was in denial too. She kept trying to come up with some way they could get to the TARDIS.

"I've trapped you here," the Doctor said quietly.

"No. Don't worry about us," Rose told him.

"There are worse places to be," Rey added. She would pick trapped on an impossible planet orbiting a black hole with the Doctor and Rose over Nevermore any day. "At least it's not a hospital."

Rose let out a sharp laugh that sounded a little hysterical. The Doctor pulled her in a tight hug. One hand reached out to hold Rey's hand. They sat there for a while, the three of them drawing comfort from one another. Eventually, they moved back to Habitation Area Three. The ancient writing on the wall still creped her out, but the Doctor wanted to study it some more.

Over the tannoy, Zach asked Danny to check on the temperature in Ood Habitation. Rose and Rey got up to join the queue for food. The thought of eating made her feel sick, but it was better than sitting by the symbols. Scooti joked with Rose for a short while, already carrying a tray with food.

"I did that job once," Rose said as the Ood shook some sauce onto her tray. "I was a… a dinner lady! Not that I'm calling you a lady. Although, I dunno, you might be. Do you actually get paid, though? Do they give you money?"

"The Beast and his Armies shall rise from the Pit to make war against God," the Ood replied politely.

Well, if ever there was a big flashing sign that something was about to go terribly wrong, this was it.

Rose blinked in confusion. The Ood tapped the communication orb. "Apologies. I said, 'I hope you enjoy your meal.'"

"Yeah…"

Rose collected her tray and they returned to the Doctor. The food was strange, and not just in appearance. She made a face when she took a bite, but chewed and swallowed diligently.

"You might wanna see this," Ida called over after a short while of the three of them sitting in silence. "Moment in history." She pulled the lever to open the overhead shutters. The black hole continued to rage on, and the same light from earlier flooded the room. "There. On the edge." Ida pointed to a red light spiraling into the singularity. "That used to be the Scarlet System. Home to the Peluch, a mighty civilization spanning a billion years… disappearing. Forever. Their planets and suns consumed."

When it was over she went to close the shutters again only for the Doctor to stop her. "Could you leave it open? Just for a bit. I won't go mad, I promise."

"How would you know," Ida asked teasingly, but relented.

"You're plenty mad enough already," Rey added. He smiled at her but didn't refute her claim.

"Scooti, check the lockdown," Ida instructed. "Jefferson, sign off the airlock seals for me." She left with the security chief, leaving them alone.

Rose seemed to feel awkward in the silence. "I've seen films and things, yeah—they say black holes are like gateways to another universe."

"Not that one," the Doctor said. "It just eats."

"Long way from home…"

He looked at her, finally picking up on her nerves. "Go that way, turn right, keep going for um… about five hundred years… then you'll reach the Earth."

Rose managed a weak tweak of her lips before taking out her mobile. "No signal. That's the first time we've gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could call mum… what would I tell her…? Can you build another TARDIS?" She let out a half-hearted laugh.

"They were grown, not built. And with my own planet gone… we're kind of stuck."

"Well, it could be worse," she said consolingly. "This lot said they'd give us a lift."

"And then what?"

"I dunno… find a planet… get a job... live a life, same as the rest of the universe."

"Pfft…" He slouched back in his chair. "I'd have to settle down. In a house or something, a proper house with… with… with… with _doors_ and things. Carpets! Me! Living in a house!"

"I've always wanted to live in a house," Rey said. She kept her eyes fixed on her hands, trying her best not to notice the probing looks both the Doctor and Rose were giving her. "Or a flat." Anywhere that wasn't a hospital or mental facility.

Rose's smile looked a little forced, but was the thought that counted, Rey supposed. "Where did you live before?"

She shrugged. There was only the hospital, for as long as she could remember. Sometimes, if she thought hard enough about it, she managed to dredge up some faint memories of a house that was too big and children that treated her like she was their friend. It was too vague for her to believe it to be a real memory. More likely that it was some fantasy or dream from her early childhood, the kind a person revisited so many times they could believe it actually happened.

"I can't imagine you in one," she said to the Doctor, trying to bring back the lighthearted mood.

"You'd have to get a mortgage," Rose teased in a sing-song voice.

He looked back at them, horrified. "No."

"Oh, yes."

"I am dying," he declared. "That's it. I am dying, it is all over."

"What about me," Rose asked. "I'd have to get one too. I dunno, could… could be the same one, we could…" The Doctor caught her eye but she looked away quickly, suddenly shy. "I dunno… share. Or not, you know. Whatever."

Something strange settled between them. Rey looked back and forth discreetly, more than a little confused. What was so bad about sharing a house? They already basically lived together in the TARDIS, why did it matter if they lived together in a house instead? There was nothing to be shy about.

Another part of her was preoccupied with what would happen if they really were stuck. Would all those wonderful adventures—Donna, Amy, Rory, Martha—would they never happen? Would she still jump around the Doctor's timeline? Living linearly wasn't a terrible idea, but the fear of never returning to the Doctor, of being stuck for good in Nevermore, struck her cold.

"I promised Jackie I'd always take you back home," the Doctor eventually said, breaking the awkward silence.

"Everyone leaves home in the end," Rose offered.

"Not to end up stuck here."

"Yeah, but stuck with you—that's not so bad."

They smiled at each other briefly before Rose's mobile rang. She answered, then flung the phone to floor. The Doctor looked at her strangely, caught off guard by her sudden outburst. Rey hesitantly picked the device up. The call was still connected, so she held the speaker to her ear.

"He is awake."

"Who is?"

The line clicked and the dial tone rang out. She handed Rose her phone and repeated the message back to the Doctor along with the Ood's strange response from earlier. He frowned, brow furrowing and getting that signature let's-find-out-what's-going-on look on his face. "I think we should pay a visit to Ood Habitation," he declared, and led the way.

Danny was working at a computer when they arrived, humming to himself off-tune until he noticed he wasn't alone anymore. "They mysterious threesome," he greeted. "How are you, then? Settling in?"

"Yeah, sorry, straight to business. The Ood—how do they communicate? I mean, with each other."

On the level below, the Ood were sat in an enclosed area that resembled an animal-pen.

Danny shrugged. "Oh, just empaths. There's a low level telepathic field connecting them. Not that that does _them_ much good. They're basically a herd race. Like cattle."

"Watch your mouth," Rey warned. So much for the ethics committee.

"This telepathic field—can it pick up messages," the Doctor asked.

"'Cos I was having dinner, and one of the Ood said something… well, odd," Rose explained.

"Oh. An odd Ood," Danny repeated sarcastically.

"And then I got something else on my er… communicator thing."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, be fair. We've got who star systems burning up around us. There's all sorts of stray transmissions. Probably nothing." The three of them stared at him, unconvinced. "Look… if there was something wrong, it would show. We monitor the telepathic field. It's the only way to look after them. They're so stupid, they don't even tell us when they're ill."

Rey grit her teeth and narrowed her eyes. "Is that what the computer's doing? Monitoring the field?"

"Yeah. But like I said, it's low level telepathy. They only register Basic 5."

"Check again." The number kept rising, first to 6, then climbing to 10, 20, 30. Danny gasped but remained in denial. He was convinced the problem was with the scanner, not the Ood.

Rose had her gaze locked on the aliens below. They all raised their heads in unison. She called out a warning to the others. "What does Basic 30 mean?"

"Well, it means that they're shouting—screaming inside their heads."

"Or something's shouting at them," the Doctor said quietly. He took Rey's hand, squeezing reassuringly.

Danny tapped on the keyboard. "But… where's it coming from? What is it saying? I mean—" He looked up at Rose. "What did it say to you?"

"Something about the beast in the pit."

"What about your communicator? What did that say?"

Rose bit her lip and looked away. "He is awake," Rey answered when it became clear the other girl was too uncomfortable to reply.

"And you will worship him," all the Ood said in unison.

"What the hell?"

"He is awake," the Doctor repeated.

"And you will worship him."

"Worship who," he asked, but received no answer. "Who's talking to you? Who is it?"

Rey's head throbbed as the base shook again. Since the second they landed and stepped foot on the base, she had a headache that was steadily growing worse. At first, she thought it had just been the stress of the quake and the devastation of losing the TARDIS. But this didn't feel like one of her usual headaches. Suffice it to say, headaches and migraines weren't uncommon, but they usually came when she was feeling overwhelmed, when there was too much going on and her senses were too good at picking them up but not good enough at processing them.

This didn't feel like seeing too much. This felt like something was staring her right in the face, in plain sight but invisible because she just couldn't put the pieces together.

She, the Doctor, and Rose went down to the lower level where all the Ood were. Danny, still on the walkway above, stubbornly refused to join them. Unceasing tremors threw them violently to the floor, nearly as bad as the quake from earlier.

Then the computer announced an emergency hull breach. From the control room, Zach spoke to the entire crew over the tannoy. "Everyone… evacuate 11 to 13, we've got a breach! The base is open. Repeat: the base is _open_."

They ran from Ood Habitation back towards the center of the base. The Doctor and Rey led the way with Rose at a close second and Danny trailing a bit behind. In the corridor between Habitation Area Three and the control room, they were met with Jefferson, trying to keep the door open to usher everyone through. Ida and the other crew members approached from the other direction.

"Come on," Jefferson yelled. "Keep moving! And you too, Toby!" He pulled the archaeologist through and slammed the door shut behind them.

"Breach sealed," the computer announced. "Breach sealed."

"Everyone alright," the Doctor asked. "What happened? What was it?"

"Oxygen levels normal."

"Hull breach," Jefferson exclaimed through pants. "We were open to the elements. A couple of minutes and we'd have been inspecting that black hole at close quarters."

"That wasn't a quake," the Doctor said. "What caused it?" He gave Rey a thorough once over while Rose bent down to check on Toby, who had fallen on his face when he was rushed through the door. He was sweating profusely, looking like he'd seen a ghost.

Everyone but Scooti was accounted for. She didn't answer her comm when Jefferson ordered her to report in. From the control room, Zach reported that her biochip registered her in Habitation 3.

"Habitation 3… Come on. I don't often say this, but I think we could all do with a drink," Jefferson offered.

Everyone but Toby, Rose, the Doctor, and Rey followed him. Toby was still sitting on the floor, staring at his hands like they were someone else's. The Doctor crouched down to his eyelevel. "What happened?"

"I don't— I dunno, I— I was working and then I can't remember. All— all that noise, the room was falling apart, there was no air—"

Rose helped him up. "Come on. Up you get. Come and have some Protein One." She linked arms with him and led him down the corridor to join the others in Habitation 3.

"Are you okay," the Doctor asked Rey. She rubbed her head, trying to sooth the ache behind her eyes, and nodded. Physically, she was just fine. They'd had closer calls before; sore muscles and a few bruises were better than flesh wounds. "You sure?"

"Something bugs me," she admitted quietly. She didn't want anyone, especially Toby for some reason, to overhear. "It feels like we're being watched. Or rather, like we're mice scurrying around in a maze someone has set up."

He frowned. She found herself bothered more than usual by the troubled look on her face. It was her fault it was there, and, irrationally, she felt like she had to do something to make up for it.

"Do you feel lost?"

She shook her head. "I'm with you. People get lost when they're alone. If they're with someone else, then they're on an adventure."

Despite the grim circumstances and the uncertainty, despite all the questions and the daunting future, his smile made something loosen in her chest.

Habitation 3 was a flurry of disorder when they arrived. Everyone was talking over each other, looking for Scooti who was nowhere to be found.

"Zach," Jefferson called over his communicator. "We've got a problem. Scooti's still missing."

"It says Habitation 3."

"Yeah, well that's where I am, and I'm telling you she's not here."

Rey followed the Doctor's gaze upward. The shutters were open, revealing the outside. She felt her stomach drop at the sight above them. "I've found her," he said quietly.

"Oh my God…"

Scooti's body floated almost eerily just outside the window.

"Sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry."

The crew were too stunned to respond. Quietly, Jefferson reported back. His voice was barely above a whisper, but it still cut through the horrified silence as if it were a shout. "Captain… report Officer Scootori Manista PKD… deceased. 43K2.1."

"She was twenty," Ida lamented. "Twenty years old." She walked over to the console and pulled the lever to close the shutters. Through the closing crack they watched as Scooti's body drifted closer and closer towards the singularity.

"'For how should Man die better than facing fearful odds? For the ashes of his father… and the temples of his Gods,'" Jefferson recited, voice lowering into a whisper towards the end. It was as if his words cast a physical shadow over the room, leaving everything just a little darker and more somber.

"It's stopped," Ida said. Something in the distance crashed.

"What was that," Rose asked. "What was it?"

"The drill," the Doctor replied.

"We've stopped drilling," Ida declared. "We've made it. Point Zero."

The crew quickly gathered on the Exploration Deck, equally eager to move past the foreboding implications of Scooti's death and to find something that would make all their sacrifices worth it. Even with the parts that were damaged and lost, the base was huge and there were only a few of them left. It begged the question of just how many people had begun the expedition, and how many more were lost. Rose and Rey puttered about nervously in the background, especially when the Doctor insisted on joining the landing party.

"Capsule established," Ida reported, dressed in an orange space suit. "All systems functioning… the mineshaft is go… bring systems online now."

"Reporting as a volunteer for the expeditionary force," the Doctor said to Zach, decked out in a similar suit.

"This is breaking every single protocol. We don't even know who you are."

"Yeah, but you trust me, don't you? And you can't let Ida go down there on her own. Go on… look me in the eye… Yes, you do, I can see it. Trust."

"I should be going down," Zach grumbled regrettably.

"The Captain doesn't lead the mission. He stays here. In charge."

"Not much good at it, am I," he asked bitterly.

The Doctor looked at him pointedly. "I'm trusting you with Rey's safety. And Rose."

Zach sighed and called out to the rest of the room. "Positions! We're going down in two. Everyone, positions!"

Rey and Rose walked over to the Doctor as he checked the readouts of his suit to make sure everything was in order. "Oxygen… nitro-balance… gravity. It's ages since I wore one of these!"

"Orange isn't your colour." She hoped her teasing words covered up the stilted quality of her voice.

"I want that spacesuit back in one piece, you got that," Rose ordered.

"Preferably with you in it, clever boy."

The Doctor put the helmet on and saluted. "Yes, sir."

"It's funny, 'cos people back home think that space travel's gonna be whizzing about and teleports and anti-gravity… but it's not, is it?" Rose's voice cracked towards the end, betraying her emotions. "It's tough."

"I'll see you later," the Doctor told her with confidence.

"Not if I see you first," she shot back before laughing softly and pulling his head down to place a kiss on the top of his helmet.

He turned to Rey. "See you soon."

"You'd better." She stepped back and wondered if this was what he felt like every time she jumped.

Zach returned to the control room to oversee the mission. "Capsule active," he announced through the speakers. "Counting down in 10… 9…"

The Doctor and Ida walked over to the capsule. Jefferson closed the metal door behind them and saluted. Rose waved, a smile on her face. The Doctor waved back, returning her smile. Rey stood stiffly, still full of a tension that she knew wouldn't release until he was back. As Zach finished the countdown, all eyes were on the capsule that descended rapidly. No one paid attention to where Toby was sat hunched in the corner, twitchy and worked up over something, and constantly checking his hands.

The nearby computer station tracked the capsule as it descended further into the planet. Rose had taken command of the comm. and refused to relinquish it to anyone else. "Don't forget to breathe," she reminded the Doctor and Ida. Rey thought that with how red her face was that Rose should take her own advice. "Breathing's good."

"Rose, stay off the comm," Zach ordered.

"Fat chance."

Jefferson took a step forward like he was thinking about taking it from her. Rey shook her head. Better to just let Rose be. If taking over the line made her feel better than she should have at it. The last thing they needed was an argument or fight dividing them.

A soft beep sounded as the computer registered the capsule reaching Point Zero. The entire base shook as it touched down. She swayed on her feet but managed to keep balance.

"Doctor," Rose called over the line. "Doctor, are you alright?"

"Ida, report to me," Zach tried when there was no response. "Doctor?"

A moment of silence passed. The dread built up like a tidal wave, threatening to crest and come crashing down over everything. Rey's heart pounded in her chest.

 _Actinium. Silver. Aluminum. Americium. Argon…_

Finally, "It's alright…" The Doctor's voice was faint and interlaced with static, but it was unmistakable. She sighed in relief and didn't stop mentally reciting. "We've made it… Coming out of the capsule now."

"What is it like down there," she asked, speaking into the device still in Rose's hand.

"It's hard to tell… Some sort of… cave… cavern… It's massive." Great. The one time she wanted him to talk—talking meant he was still alive, after all—and the Doctor was at a loss for words.

"You can tell Toby we've found his civilization…"

Rose cheered. "Oi, Toby—sounds like you've got plenty of work," she called out.

"Good, good," Toby replied distractedly. Rey studied him from the corner of her eye, lips twitching downward in a slight frown. She was well aware that different people handled stress differently, but there was something markedly off about Toby. He had been contentious, almost hostile when they first met in the control room, but at least he'd been responsive. Now he seemed to be in a world of his own.

"Concentrate now, people," Zach corralled. "Keep on the mission. Ida… what about the power source?"

"We're close," she reported. "Energy signature indicates north, north west. Are you getting pictures up there?"

"There's too much interference. We're in your hands."

The Doctor's and Ida's line went silent while they explored some more. In the meanwhile, Danny reported something strange in Ood Habitation. According to him, the Ood were all staring and it was putting him off. Zach told him not to make a big deal about it, but Danny was adamant something was wrong.

"But the telepathic field, sir. It's at Basic 100! I've checked—there isn't any fault. It's definitely 100."

"But that's impossible."

"What's Basic 100 mean," Rose asked.

It meant brain death. If the Ood's telepathic field really was that high, they should have been overwhelmed. It wouldn't be just each other's thoughts and emotions they shared, it would be their sensations, their memories, every tiny passing notion amplified by a thousand. No one could handle that.

"They should be dead," Danny stated.

"But they're safe," Zach asked. "They're not actually moving?"

"No, sir."

"Keep watching them. And you, Jefferson—keep a guard on the Ood."

"Officer at arms," Jefferson announced. He pulled out his own gun while the crew members responded to his order and prepared themselves for confrontation.

"You can't fire a gun in here," Rose protested. "What if they hit a wall?"

"I'm firing stock 15, only packs upon organics. Keep watch," he told the other security guard.

"Is everything alright up there," the Doctor asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Rose replied quickly.

"It's _fine_ ," Zach stressed.

"Great," Danny added with strangled enthusiasm.

"Rey?"

"Peachy." No one was dying or actively trying to kill them, so she couldn't really complain. But she was distracted between keeping an eye on Toby and trying to work out if anything could be done for the Ood. "Anything of interest down there?"

"We've found something. It looks like metal. Like some sort of seal. I've got a nasty feeling the word might be 'trapdoor.' Not a good word, 'trapdoor.' Never met a trapdoor I liked."

"The edge is covered with those symbols," Ida relayed. Rey thought back to the writing on the wall in Habitation 3.

"Do you think it opens," Zach asked.

"That's what trapdoors tend to do."

"'Trapdoor' doesn't do it justice. It's massive, Zach. About thirty feet in diameter."

"Any way of opening it," he asked again.

"I don't know. I can't see any sort of mechanism," Ida said.

"I supposed that's the writing," the Doctor guessed. "That'll tell us what to do. The letters that defy translation."

"Toby, did you get anywhere with decoding it?"

Toby was still in his corner, head in his arms. He didn't seem to have heard Zach. "Toby, they need to know—that lettering, does it make any sort of sense," Rose asked him.

Rey bounced on the balls of her feet, ready to react if he tried something. She wanted to be wrong about him, but her luck meant she was rarely wrong in these cases.

"I know what it says."

"Then tell them," Rose urged.

"When did you work that out," Jefferson asked.

"It doesn't matter, just tell them."

Toby got to his feet and walked to them slowly. One second he looked normal, and a blink of an eye later, his skin was covered in black symbols. Glowing red eyes stared back at them, and when he spoke it was the same monstrous voice as the one she'd heard over Rose's mobile.

"These are the words of the Beast. And he has woken." Jefferson aimed his gun at him, but Toby continued to talk like it wasn't there. "He is the heart that beats in the darkness. He is the blood that will never cease. And he will rise."

"Officer, stand down," Jefferson ordered. " _Stand down._ "

Static burst over the comm. Rey had a feeling that it was Doctor or Zach were trying to reach them. But whoever it was, they were unable to get through. Toby flexed his arms as Jefferson tried to order him back.

"He's come out in those symbols all over his face," Rose said into the device, hoping to reach the others. "They're all over him."

"Mr. Jefferson, tell me, sir… Did your wife ever forgive you," whatever was possessing Toby suddenly asked.

"I don't know what you mean," he lied.

"Let me tell you a secret: she never did."

He swallowed loudly but held his ground. "Officer… you stand down and be confined."

"Or what?"

"Or under the jurisdiction of Condition Red, I am authorized to shoot you."

"But how many can you kill?"

Toby's eyes lit up a brighter red. He opened his mouth and roared as the symbols seemed peel of his skin all at once, turning into black smoke in the air. It flew from the Exploration Deck, and Rey knew exactly where it was headed: Ood Habitation. Toby collapsed, seemingly no longer possessed. Jefferson turned his gun on the three Ood in the room with them.

"We are the Legion of the Beast," they said in unison. The translation orbs were held out like weapons in front of them. She remembered the warehouses of that snowy planet from what felt like so long ago. Those orbs would kill them if they made contact, and it wouldn't be a quick, painless death.

"Rey?" The Doctor's voice broke through the static. "What is it? Rose?"

"Report," Zach yelled. "Someone, report."

"The Legion shall be many. And the Legion shall be few…"

She pulled the communication device, still clasped tightly in Rose's hand, towards her so she could speak. "It's the Ood," she warned. At the same time, Jefferson was reporting a livestock contamination to Zach. "Something has overtaken them. It's forcing them to act according to its will."

"He has woven himself in the fabric of your life since the dawn of time. Some may call him Abaddon. Some may call him Kroptor. Some may call him Satan, or Lucifer, or the Bringer of Despair… The Deathless Prince. The Bringer of Night." The three Ood walked calmly towards them, undeterred by the guns aimed in their direction. "These are the words that shall set him free."

"Back up to the door," Jefferson shouted over his shoulder. Rey, Rose, and the other crew member complied.

"I shall become manifest."

"Move quickly," he urged.

"I shall walk in might."

"To the door! Get it open!"

"My Legions shall swarm across the worlds…"

Everything was shaking again. The entire base was devolving into chaos. Her head throbbed. It felt like a full-on migraine was about to cause a storm in her brain.

"We're moving," Zach exclaimed, his voice coming from the device on Jefferson's wrist. "The whole thing's moving! The planet's moving!"

"I am the sin and the temptation. And the desire. I am the pain and the loss and the dead will come."

No matter how hard they pulled, the door refused to budge.

"I have been imprisoned for eternity. But no more."

"Door sealed," the computer repeated unhelpfully. "Door sealed."

"The Pit is open. And I am free."


	11. The Satan Pit

**Guys, guys, guys—we've officially reached the second half of the story! That means (you guessed it) this is going to be a series! I'm so excited to be going on Rey's journey with all of you. Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, followed, and fav'd so far.**

 **Now, without further ado: AKA In Which the Devil is a Chatterbox**

* * *

"Open fire!"

On Jefferson's command, he and the other guard fired on the Ood. Rey pulled Rose back out of the way, willing herself not to flinch at each impossibly loud bang. An eternity seemed to pass before the gunfire stopped. The Ood were dead, bodies slumped on the floor. Rose stepped over them to grab for the communicator, desperate to make sure the Doctor was still alright.

"Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?" Static. Neither he nor Ida said a word. "Doctor? Ida? Are you there?"

The computer announced Door 25 open. Jefferson and the guard reacted instantly, guns back up and ready to shoot. Rather than another Ood, it was Danny who burst in. He faltered at the sight of weapons, but didn't stop. "It's me! But they're coming. It's the Ood. They've gone mad."

"How many of them?"

"All of them! All fifty!"

"Danny, out of the way," Jefferson commanded. He gestured with the gun for him to move aside from the door, repeating the order more harshly.

"But they're armed," Danny warned. "They're dan—"

When he still didn't comply, Jefferson physically pushed Danny aside.

"They're able to use the translator interface as a weapon," Rey told him. She was trying to get Rose to let go of the communicator. The Doctor was alive, he had to be. Right now, they needed to focus on surviving themselves and getting out. "One touch and it'll fry your brain like a full breakfast."

This got Jefferson to pause. He turned to ask how she knew this. The other guard wasn't so fortunate. She opened the door and was immediately attacked. Before anyone could react to pull her back, one of the Ood stuck its orb to her forehead. She screamed and jerked, seizing with the current running through her, then fell to the floor.

Jefferson opened fire on the crowd of Ood. Danny flinched back, moving to join Rose and Rey out of the way. Through Jefferson's wrist device, Zach called for a status report. Judging from the harried quality of his voice, she concluded that he was also under attack. "I've got very little ammunition, sir. How about you?"

"All I've got is a bolt gun. With uh… all of one bolt. I could take out a grand total of one Ood. Fat lot of good that is."

"Given the emergency… I recommend Strategy Nine."

Zach paused for a moment, thinking over his options. When he spoke again, he sounded defeated and resigned. "Strategy Nine. Agreed. Right, we need to get everyone together. Rose? What about Ida and the Doctor? And word?"

Rose shook her head, still clinging to the communicator like it was a lifeline. "I can't get any reply, just… _nothing_. I keep trying, but it's…"

Suddenly, the Doctor's voice broke through the static. Rey breathed out a sigh of relief, forcing her hands to unclench from the fists they'd been balled into. "No! Sorry, I'm fine. Still here!"

"You could've said, you stupid—" Rose let out a loud expletive.

"Whoa! Careful! Anyway, it's both of us, me and Ida. Hello! But the seal opened up. It's gone. All we've got left is this chain."

"How deep is it," Zach asked.

"Can't tell. It looks like it goes on forever."

"The voice said 'the Pit is open,'" Rey repeated in a small voice. Then, is a surer one, she added, "Also, a lot of epithets for the devil." If traveling with the Doctor taught her anything, it was that there was something about burying your fears in humor. Breaking down got you killed. Poking fun calmed her down and kept her alert. "Did anything come out?"

"No. No sign of 'the Beast.'"

"It said 'Satan'," Rose said in a scared voice. The Doctor tried to encourage her to keep it together, but it didn't do much to assuage her fear. "Is there no such thing? Doctor? Doctor, tell me there's no such thing."

He didn't answer her. Or couldn't, rather. "Anything can be real enough if you believe it," Rey told Rose softly. "The existence of a god or devil is no different."

"How can you be so calm?" Rather than hostility, Rose looked at her pleading for a better way to cope. Unfortunately, she couldn't help. There was no secret to her even temper, just a mix of her upbringing, innate personality, and beliefs. She hadn't grown up in an environment or culture that constantly referenced heaven and hell, and she knew far too well that humans could be even crueler than the devils she read about. If she _had_ to choose a label, she would call herself agnostic.

"I guess I just choose to believe differently."

"Ida? I recommend that you withdraw," Zach said. "Immediately."

"But… we've come all this way!" Despite the dangers, she still wanted to continue with the expedition. Rey didn't know if it was brave or foolish. Probably both.

"Okay, that was an order," Zach corrected. "Withdraw. With that thing open, the whole planet's shifted. One more inch and we fall into the black hole. So this thing stops right now."

"But it's not much better up there with the Ood," she protested.

"I'm initiating Strategy Nine, so I need the two of you back up top, no arguments."

There was a screech and a crackle that faded to more static as Ida temporarily turned off her communicator. Rey couldn't help the thread of worry that tugged at her heart. Danny explained to them that Strategy Nine meant opening the airlocks of the base. Only the central hub would be locked down, everything else would be exposed to the vacuum of space. The Ood would be sucked right out and into the black hole like Scooti was.

If they were still in the planet, the Doctor and Ida would be vulnerable. Worst yet, they'd be stranded. There was no way the lift shaft would be able to withstand the pressure change. Staying was suicide; if Ida insisted on continuing, she'd be signing her own death warrant.

The Doctor wouldn't leave her behind. He'd stay with her and try to convince her to turn back. If that failed, he still wouldn't leave her to die alone. And if he was staying, then so was Rey. He'd probably want her to look after Rose, but she found that she didn't care. Where the Doctor went, she went, end of. Even if it meant donning a spacesuit and climbing down to get him.

The line clicked back open. "Rey, were coming back."

She breathed a sigh of relief. Rose's smile was tight, pleased, worried, and a smidge irritated all at once. "Best news I've heard all day!"

The respite didn't last long. Jefferson, looming over Toby with a hard face, released the safety of his gun.

"What're you doing," Rose asked, outraged.

"He's infected. He brought that thing on board. You saw it."

Toby cowered on the floor, unable to defend himself. "Are you gonna start shooting your own people now? Is that what you're gonna do? Is it?" Rose approached him, meaning to stop Jefferson physically if she had to. Rey couldn't see that ending well for anyone.

"If necessary."

"Well then, you'll have to shoot me 'if necessary,' so what's it gonna be?" He paused. She tensed, ready to intercede if necessary. At the very least, she could throw Jefferson off so that Rose could take Toby and run. She trusted Toby about as far as she could throw him at this point, but she also felt entrusted with Rose's safety. If what the Doctor said that time with Dickens was true, than it was because of her that Rose was traveling with them. That put Rose under her responsibility.

"Look at his face," Rose urged, kneeling next to Toby. "Whatever it was, it's gone. It passed into the Ood. You saw it happen. He's clean."

She wasn't so sure of that. Toby looked and acted normal, but there was still the possibility that whatever possessed him in the first place was just lying in wait. It could have buried itself in his subconscious, so deep that even he believed it to be gone.

But she had nothing but her gut to support her theory, and a theory wasn't enough to condemn a man to death. "You can always shoot him later," she offered, ignoring Rose's affronted look. "You have no proof that he's still, how did you put it, 'infected.' Shoot him now and you may as well be shooting an innocent man."

Jefferson hesitated before finally moving away. "Any sign of trouble… It's on your head if he does anything."

Rose let out her held breath. "Are you alright," she asked Toby. He shook, nearly in tears, and his eyes kept flickering back to his hands like he expected the symbols to still be there.

"Can you remember anything," Rey asked.

"Just… it was so angry. It was… fury and rage… death…" He cast a terrified glance around the room before meeting Rose's eyes, urging her to believe him. "It was him. It was the devil."

She softened. "Come here," she beckoned, and pulled him into a hug. With wide eyes, he still looked over her shoulder, expecting the mysterious Beast to come back for him.

Eventually, Rose released him and they got back on their feet. Toby shifted as far away from the group as he could while still being part of it. They waited in tense silence for the Doctor and Ida to make contact so they could reel them back up. "How could you say that to Mr. Jefferson," she asked as the anticipation built. There was less accusation in her voice than expected. Rey took it as a sign of hope that they really had come a long way.

"He's a suspicious man, and men like that feel better when they have something to be suspicious of," she answered quietly.

From what she gathered, the crew had spent over two years living together, improvising and trusting each other with their collective survival. That sort of intimacy would get to anyone, even Jefferson. He would have a hard time shooting Toby, especially after Rose planted that seed of doubt in him. He just needed something to chew on to get through this.

"That doesn't make any sense," Rose complained.

"Think of it like this: he'll be watching Toby. Focusing on him. Better to concentrate that sort of attention on one person than have him start to suspect everyone."

"So Toby's your scapegoat?"

"Toby's alive, which is more that we can say for the Ood."

Rose's mouth shut, her teeth clicking audibly as Rey's comment effectively killed her retort. After a while, she said, "They were trying to kill us," in a quiet voice. She knew what Rose meant. She didn't mean that Toby's life was more important, or that he deserved to live more than the Ood. But Toby was human.

"They're being controlled. Did you know? They're actually a very peaceful species. They're kind, and they show mercy even when they've been horribly wronged." They could've killed Halpen easily, and he would have deserved it. Instead, they changed him and decided to teach him better ways. Maybe not in the most conventional sense, but he was probably much better off as an Ood.

Rose eyed her, obviously studying her. "I really can't tell with you, sometimes," she said.

"Tell what," Rey asked, though she already knew the answer.

"Okay, we're in," Ida said over the intercom. "Bring us up."

Both girls faced forward. Jefferson was at the computer, manning the controls. "Ascension in three… two… one." The mechanism failed with a loud groan. The lights went out all at once, drowning the room in complete darkness.

"This is the Darkness," the Beast growled out. "This is my domain. You little things that live in the light… clinging to your feeble Suns… which will die in the…"

"That's not the Ood," Zach called out through the communicator. "Something's talking through them."

"Only the Darkness remains."

"This is Captain Zachary Cross Flan of Sanctuary Base Six representing the Torchwood Archive. You will identify yourself," he commanded.

"You know my name," the Beast replied.

"What do you want?"

"You will die here. All of you. This planet is your grave."

Toby was nearly having a fit, shaking so hard he was almost vibrating. He kept repeating "It's him, it's him" over and over.

"If you are the Beast, then answer me this: which one," the Doctor asked. "Hmm? 'Cos the universe has been busy since you've been gone. There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Archivists… Prodonity, Christianity… Pash-Pash, New Judaism… Sanclar… Church of the Tin Vagabond—which devil are you?"

"All of them."

"What, then you're the truth behind the myth?"

"This one knows me—as I know him," the Beast said almost gleefully. "The killer of his own kind."

"How did you end up on this rock," he asked in a steely voice. There was no acknowledgment of the Beast's statement, which in and of itself was a form of acknowledgment.

"The disciples of the Light rose up against me. And chained me in the pit for all eternity."

"When was this?"

"Before time."

"When does _that_ mean?" He was getting frustrated. Beside Rey, Rose trembled. She was trying to stay strong and brave, but the situation was starting to get to her.

"Before time," the Beast repeated.

"What does 'before time' _mean_?"

"Before light and time and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before this universe was created."

"That's impossible," he denied. "No life could have existed back then."

Rey felt like she had to agree. Even if the Beast was technically not lying—if the theory of the multiverse was correct and he was from some other older universe, or something equally improbable—then how was he trapped? How do you build a prison with no matter?

"Is that your religion?"

"It's a belief," the Doctor replied stubbornly.

"You know nothing. All of you. So small." The Beast addressed them individually, taking mirth in the chance to break them down. "The Captain, so scared of command." Zach. "The soldier, haunted by the eyes of his wife." Jefferson. "The scientist, still running from daddy." Ida. "The little boy who lied…" Danny shuffled uncomfortably on his feet. "The virgin…" Toby turned away. "The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon."

Rey froze. So did Rose. The Beast was talking about Rose—Rose was going to die? No, it had to be lying. She wasn't going to let that happen.

"Doctor, what does that mean," Rose asked in a shaky voice. He told her not to listen, and she wanted to obey. She was about a second away from covering her ears with her hands, but she still couldn't help but want to know more.

The Beast wasn't finished. "And the lost little forgotten girl with no name."

Rey balled her hands into fists at her side. "I have a name," she said firmly.

He chuckled. "But is it really _your_ name? The Black Cat so far from home. You will die here. You will die… and I will live."

The computer, which had been showing the Ood standing collectively as a group, suddenly cut out. The image was replaced by a roaring horned beast before dissolving into static. Rey flinched back, and she wasn't the only one. Everyone in the room with her also jerked away. "What the hell was that," Danny asked in a shaky voice. As if breaking the spell that had everyone in silence, now the crew spoke all at once, talking over one another.

"I had that thing inside my head."

"Doctor, what did it mean?"

"What do we do? Jefferson?"

"Captain? What's the situation on Strategy Nine?"

"Zach, what do we do?"

"What if I can fix it? The black hole, everything true."

"Captain, report."

"We've lost pictures—"

"Doctor, how did it know all of—"

"Did anyone get—"

"What do we do?"

Rey had had enough. Her headache was finally starting to ease up, but all the yelling and panic now was making it come back with a vengeance. She was scared, of course she was scared. The Beast, whatever it was, seemed to know things about without cause. It knew her nickname, it knew that the Doctor was the last Time Lord, it said that Rose was going to die.

Of course she was scared, but being scared wasn't going to help anyone. They could stand around and talk at each other and no one until the oxygen had run out, and it wouldn't do a damn thing.

Marching over to the computer, she tugged out some wires and pressed them together into the communication device's receiver. A loud screech rang out, echoing against the metal walls. It made her want to grind her teeth, but it served its purpose to get everyone else to quiet down.

"If you want voices in the dark," the Doctor said calmly, "then listen to mine. That thing is playing on very basic fears. Darkness, childhood nightmares, all that stuff."

"But that's how the devil works," Danny said.

"Or a psychologist," Rey countered. Compared to some of hers, the Beast was positively tame.

"But… how did it know about my father," Ida asked in a weak voice.

If it had taken over Toby, it could have had access to his memories. Two years was a long time to bond when you only had contact with less than a dozen people and were constantly on the brink of death. Better yet, it could have accessed the mainframe and personnel files. She was pretty sure that the crew must have had psychological evaluations to be cleared for this mission.

The Doctor paused for a moment. "Okay, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine? Hmm? 'Cos I'll tell you what I can see: humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space. Flying in a tiny little rocket into the orbit of a black hole! Just for the sake of discovery, that's amazing! Do you hear me? Amazing. All of you. The captain—his officer—his elder—his genius—his friends. All with one advantage: the Beast is alone; we are not. If we can use that to fight against him—"

With a deafening bang, the cable connecting the capsule to the reeling mechanism that snapped. A horrible crashing sound echoed as it fell down the shaft, crushing the capsule beneath. Dust drifted up into the Exploration Deck.

"Doctor!" Rose shouted into the communicator. "We lost the cable! Doctor, are you alright? Doctor?"

"Coms are down," Zach reported with frustration.

"Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?"

"Rose, it's no use," Rey told her. "The line is dead."

At least Zach confirmed the system was still receiving life signs to her great relief. Her heart had nearly stopped too many times on this trip.

"Say something," Rose begged, still not giving up on getting a response. "Are you there?"

"There's no way out," Zach told her. "They're stuck down there."

"But we've _got to_ get them back."

"They're ten miles down," Jefferson told them. "We haven't got another ten miles of cable." A loud bang at the door reminded them that the Ood were still out there. "Captain? Situation report?"

The Ood were cutting through the door bolts at the control room the same as they were doing down in the Exploration Deck. Jefferson estimated that they had about eight minutes before the door gave way. Zach, who had a security frame, would last a little longer.

Rose took a few deep, shuddering breaths to collect herself. "Right. So we need to stop them—or get out—or both."

"I'll take both, yeah," Danny said sarcastically. "But how?"

"We could turn the lights back on for starters," Rey suggested.

Rose nodded. "You heard the Doctor. Why do you think that thing cut him off? 'Cos he was making sense. He was telling you to think your way out of this. Come on! There's gotta be some sort of power somewhere."

"There's nothing I can do," Zach said bitterly. "Some captain, stuck in here, pressing buttons."

"So press the right ones," Rey told him.

"They've gutted the generators! But the rocket's got an independent supply," he realized quickly. "If I could reroute that… Mr. Jefferson? Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety…" Jefferson obeyed. "Channeling rocket feed. In 3… 2… 1… power."

The lights flickered back on. Rose clapped. "There we go."

"Let there be light," Danny whooped.

"Is there enough power to activate Strategy Nine," Rey asked. Jefferson shook his head.

"Alright, we need a way out." Rose took charge, relegating roles to everyone. She had Zach and Jefferson working on finding an escape route. Danny was set to work on finding a way to stop the Ood. Toby was put in charge of translating anything to do with the Beast and the pit. He said that since it was inside his head the symbols were starting to make sense. Rey still eyed him cautiously, and she saw Jefferson do the same.

She gazed down at the dark shaft. The Doctor was alive, that was all she needed. She knew he would find a way out. Not because she had an unshakable faith in him, but because she had seen him get out of worse with less. If it came down to it, his luck would kick in. His was the opposite of hers. For all she knew, the TARDIS would come crashing out of the sky to save him at the last minute.

In the meanwhile, she went to help Zach and Jefferson. The Doctor had been on the right track about bases being made from kits. In this case, it was a good thing. The schematics that Zach had shown them back in the control room, when he'd assessed the damage from the quake, hadn't been very detailed. She had to fill in the blanks with what she read up on, and having a set design helped. "Try opening junctions 5, 6, and 7, then reroute filters 16 to 24."

"You have a plan?"

She nodded. "And it's a classic." She wanted to take back her earlier comment about mice. If she had known she was jinxing herself, she would have picked a more fortunate comparison.

Danny let out a yelp of excitement next to them at his computer station. "Oh my god! It says yes! I can do it! Hypothetically, if you flip the monitor, broadcast a flare… it can disrupt the telepathy! Brainstorm!"

"What happens to the Ood," Rose asked.

"It'll tank them, spark out!"

"There we are then," Rose said enthusiastically. "Do it!"

Danny shook his head. "No, but… I'd have to transmit from the central monitor. We need to go to Ood Habitation."

Another bang sounded from behind the door. Time was running out. "That's just what we'll do then. Mr. Jefferson, sir! Any way out?"

"Your friend here has a plan."

Rose turned to face her. "The base has a network of maintenance tunnels running below it."

"Ventilation shafts," Rose said with a smile.

"Unfortunately not. The captain will have to manually manipulate the oxygen field for us to breathe."

"I can do that," Zach said over the comm. "I can follow you through the network, create discrete pockets of atmosphere…"

"Right, so we go down, and you make the air follow us," Rose repeated. "By hand."

"You wanted me pressing buttons."

"Yeah—we asked for it—okay. We need to get to Ood Habitation, work out a route."

Rey conferred with Zach while Jefferson started working on getting them physical access to the tunnels. He had Toby and Rose help him pry off a section of the flooring. Zach vented the area directly beneath them first while Rey confirmed the most direct route. She rushed to join the others after sending it off.

Two more banging noises in rapid succession sounded off. It wasn't just the Ood hitting the door, it was them cutting through the locks. Danny typed frantically at the computer, the only person not ready. Rose shouted at him to join them.

"Hold on," he called back. "Just conforming…"

"Dan, you gotta go _now_ ," Jefferson urged.

The computer beeped. "Yeah!" He grabbed the chip and ran over to them. "Put that in the monitor… and it's a bad time to be an Ood."

"We're coming back," Rose declared. "Have you got that? We're coming back to this room and we're getting the Doctor out."

"Okay, Danny, you go first," Jefferson decided. "Then you, Miss Tyler, then Miss Rey, then Toby. I'll go last in defense of position. Now come on! Quick as you can!"

She dropped down into the tunnel, landing in a crouch on her feet and knees. It wasn't very pleasant down there, but it was spacious enough that they could crawl without risking getting stuck. There was a musky smell, like rough cotton and water gone tepid.

"God, it stinks," Rose complained. "You alright?"

"Yeah," Danny replied. "I'm laughing. Which way do we go?"

Rey pointed forward. "Just go straight ahead," Zach said. "Keep going 'till I say so."

Toby slid in down behind her. After him, Jefferson had just enough time to make it inside before the telltale sound of the door slamming open told her the Ood had finally managed to force their way into the room. The pace Danny set was a bit slow, but steady. Rose made a joke about his behind. Toby chimed in after her, admiring Rey's. She bristled and resisted the urge to kick out. A single well-aimed blow would crush his nose. Or if she went for the jaw she could knock some teeth out.

"Straight along until you find junction 7.1. Keep breathing. I'm feeding you air. I've got you."

A bead of sweat ran down along her hairline as they reached the specified junction. They may have had air, but there still wasn't any ventilation. The heat and sweat from their exercise and stress was building up, and it was stifling.

"Getting kinda cramped, sir," Danny whined. "Can't you hurry up?"

"I'm working on half power, here."

"Stop complaining," Jefferson said.

"But the air's getting a bit thin," Toby said into the device on his wrist.

Rose sniffed. Her face scrunched in disgust. "Danny, is that you?"

"I'm not exactly happy," he said defensively, wiping sweat off his face.

"I'm just moving the air," Zach narrated. "I've got to oxygenate the next section. Now, keep calm… or it's gonna feel worse."

There was a loud crash from the other end of the tunnel—the Ood were breaking in from Habitation 5.

"Where are they," Rey asked. "How close?"

"Don't know," Zach replied tersely. "I can't tell. I can't _see_ them, the computer doesn't register Ood as proper lifeforms."

"Well that's rubbish." She did some quick calculations in her head on the odds of them catching up before the junction opened. They should have enough time, but it was afterwards that she worried about. No doubt, the Ood weren't just coming from Habitation 5. They would get through every maintenance entrance they could in order to stop them.

"Open the gate," Danny cried. It lowered and he practically threw himself in. The rest followed as quickly as they could.

"Danny, turn left. Immediate left."

Jefferson was crawling backwards, his gun aimed and ready to fire upon any Ood in sight. "Can't you trap them," he asked. "Cut off the air?"

"Not without cutting off yours." There was another bang, muffled, through the communicator as Zach's door grew closer and closer to being forced open. "Danny, turn right. Go right! Go fast, Dan—they're gonna catch up!"

Panic-stricken, he picked up the speed. Jefferson offered to stay behind and maintain a defensive position. "You can't," Rey said sharply. Even with his gun, he stood no match to the sheer number of Ood. All they needed was one lucky touch with the translator orb and he was a goner.

He sat down and righted his gun. "Miss Rey—that's my job. You've got your task—now see to it."

"You heard what he said, now _shift_." Toby nudged her. She flinched away from him. As calm as she pretended to be, the stress wasn't doing anything for her nerves. Thank god she was covered up; the last thing she needed right now was to have a bad reaction to touch.

Reluctantly, she obliged and moved on, leaving Jefferson behind. Danny and Rose were stuck at junction 8.2 with Danny banging desperately on the gate. Rose tried to get him to stop, telling him it was no use, but he refused to relent.

The gate opened at what felt like a snail's pace, finally allowing them through. She glanced back, hoping to see Jefferson behind them.

"Danny, turn left and head for 9.2. That's the last one," Zach told him. "Jefferson, you've gotta move faster. Move!"

"Mr. Jefferson—"

Toby pushed her forward. "Keep going!"

The gate closed before he could get through. Rey knew the schematics, knew the design of the base. She knew that there was no way to open the gate back up without sucking the air out from where they were. Jefferson was on his own.

A few moments later, Zach's voice sounded from both Toby's and Danny's communicators. "Report… Officer John Maynard Jefferson PKD… deceased… with honours. 43K2.1"

For a moment, the four of them just sat in heavy silence. Rose was fighting tears. Rey tried not to shut down.

"Zach… we're at the final junction," Danny said softly. "9.2. And er… if my respects could be on record. He saved our lives."

"Noted. Opening 9.2."

The gate slid open only to reveal a group of Ood waiting on the other side. Rey grasped the back of Rose's shirt to pull her back while Rose did the same to Danny. "Lower 9.2," she shouted to Zach.

"Back," Danny yelled. "Back! Back!"

"We can't go back," Toby said. "The gang point's sealed off, we're stuck!"

"Rose." Rey indicated to the grating above the other girl's head. It was heavier than it looked, but together they lifted it. Rose went through first, and Rey motioned for Danny to go after her. She followed him, pulling herself up and into the corridor.

"Come on," Rose called down to Toby. He sure was taking his time. "Come on! Toby, get out of there!"

"Help me," he called, scrambling up. "Oh my God—help me!"

Rose and Danny pulled him up through the hole. Rey could see the Ood down in the maintenance tunnels, hot on his heels. To make matters worse, a second group was approaching from the other end of the corridor.

"This way!" Danny ran in the opposite direction. She slammed the grating back down before following him. A few minutes later, they burst through the doors of Ood Habitation, making for the computer. Some of the Ood were still inside, down below in the pen. When they looked up at them, their eyes were the same red as the ones chasing them.

"Get it in," Rose yelled, referring to the chip.

"Danny, get down," Toby urged.

"I'm trying, I'm trying! I'm getting at it—"

Not as slowly as any of them would've liked, the Ood began making their way up the stairs.

"Danny, get that thing transmitting," Rose yelled. Finally, he managed to plug it in. The readings that measured the Ood's telepathic field plummeted down to Basic 0. They grabbed their heads, stumbling and struggling to stay on their feet. In a matter of seconds, they all fell to the floor, limp and brain dead.

The base was silent.

"You did it," Rose cheered. "We did it!"

"Yes," Danny shouted back. They hugged, then Rose threw her arms around Toby and hugged him. Toby and Danny hugged too when she let him go.

Rey gazed sadly at the fallen Ood. "We killed them." She was relieved to be alive, but the crushing guilt made it hard to feel happy. The Ood couldn't help themselves; they had been under the Beast's control. It wasn't their fault and they still had to pay the consequences.

She'd known this was coming, and she hadn't been able to do anything about it.

She grabbed the comm resting next to the monitor. "Captain, the Ood are down. We need to find a way to get to the Doctor and Ida."

"I'm on my way," he said.

They hurried back to the Exploration Deck. Zach was already waiting for them inside, having easily made his way through the now clear path from the command room. Rose headed directly for the comm. "Doctor? Are you there? Ida? Can you hear me?"

"The comms are still down," he told her. I can patch them through the central desk and boost the signal. Just give me a minute."

The mood should have been lighter now that they weren't being chased. Eminent death was no longer looming on the horizon, but Rey's nerves refused to settle. She kept feeling like there was something she'd missed, something she still wasn't seeing.

Zach finished modifying the signal. "Doctor? Are you there? Doctor, Ida? Can you hear me? Are you there, Doctor?"

"He's gone."

Ida's voice was a relief, but her words weren't. "What do you mean, 'he's gone,'" Rose asked.

"He fell. Into the pit. And I don't know how deep it is—miles and miles and miles."

Rey stepped forward to speak into the receiver. "Did he fall, or did he jump?" It was an important distinction. If he fell then he was unprepared. If he jumped, it meant he planned on surviving.

"Both, I guess," Ida said softly. "I couldn't stop him. He said your name…"

Zach pulled the comm away from Rose's numb fingers. She didn't look like she was registering anything, just staring straight ahead. "I'm sorry. Ida? There's no way of reaching you. No cable, no back-up… you're ten miles down… we can't get there."

"You should see this place, Zach. It's beautiful. Well, I wanted to discover things…" Her voice wavered. "And here I am."

"We've got to abandon the base. I'm declaring this mission unsafe. All we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again."

"But we'll never find out what it was," she said desperately.

"Well, maybe that's best."

"Yeah."

"Officer Scott—"

"It's alright," she said unconvincingly. Everyone silently agreed they would pretend not to notice. "Just go. Good luck."

"Thank you." Zach placed the comm back on its hook. "Danny—Toby—close down the feed links. Get the retrotropes online. Then get to the rocket—strap yourselves in. We're leaving.

"I'm not going," Rose announced.

"There's space for both of you."

"No, I'm gonna wait for the Doctor," she said quietly but adamantly. "Just like he waited for me."

"I'm sorry, but… he's dead."

"You don't know him. 'Cos he's not…" A couple of tears escaped and trickled down her cheeks. "I'm telling you, he's— he's not… and even if he was, how could I leave him? All on his own, all the way down there? No. I'm gonna stay."

"Rose…" She turned to face Rey, red in the face and trembling. Her eyes begged for Rey to understand. It was unnecessary—of course she understood. She knew exactly how Rose felt. "He wouldn't want us to stay behind."

"But you want to too," she cried. "You'll get to see him again, when you jump or whatever it is you do, but if I leave I'll—"

Zach shifted in her peripheral vision. She could see a plan form in his mind the second Rose refused to leave with them. "It's the Doctor," she said like that explained everything. In a way it did for Rose. "You know he's alright, and he'll find a way to get out. He wouldn't want you to wait for him in a graveyard like this."

She wondered if she could come back. She would leave with Rose in that rocket because she had to make sure Rose was alright. But afterwards, she wondered if she could come back. Her jumps were still random, but that time in the TARDIS when all she wanted to get away, she had jumped. When she was trapped in the padded room, she hadn't left Nevermore until she wanted to. Maybe if she wanted it desperately enough, she could come back here to the Doctor.

Stubbornly, Rose still refused to leave. Zach ordered Danny and Toby to forcibly hold her in place. The sight of a syringe sent Rey's hackles up so high she just about bolted from the room. Zach slid the needle into Rose, sedating her as she still struggled to get free. She went limp in Danny's and Toby's arms.

"I have lost too many people. I am not leaving you behind," he said steely. Another syringe in hand, he turned to face Rey. "Will I need to sedate you too?"

She shook her head quickly, not taking her eyes off his weapon until he put it away.

He slung Rose's body over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. "Let's get her on board."

The sedative wasn't very strong. Rose began to stir before they even took off. She quickly tried to free herself, but the straps kept her buckled in. "Get me out of this thing," she shrieked. "Get me out!"

"And… lift-off," Zach announced. The g-force wasn't too bad. They barely felt it as the rocket launched into the sky.

"Take me back to the planet," Rose ordered. "Take me _back_!"

Rey saw her eyeing the bolt gun on the floor. Before Rose could reach for it, she kicked it out of her reach, ignoring the betrayed look it earned her. Zach didn't even turn around, focusing instead on keeping within the gravity funnel.

"Sorry, but it's too late anyway. Take a look outside. We can't turn back. This is what the Doctor would have wanted. Isn't that right?"

Rose turned her gaze outside. The singularity was drawing further and further away. So was the Doctor. "How could you leave him," she asked Rey in a small, sorrow-laden voice.

"You know enough by now to know that when you travel with the Doctor, you do what you're told."

"And he told you to take me away?"

"He would have told me to make sure you were okay." There was a hollow feeling in her chest, right where her heart was supposed to be. She never knew that regret could feel like this: so heavy that it was crushing her, and so stifling she couldn't breathe.

"Don't you have that backwards," Rose asked bitterly.

She blinked. "What does that mean?"

Rose looked away and didn't answer.

Toby started chuckling quietly to himself at first, then louder as no one stopped him. "What's the joke," Danny asked.

"Just… we made it. We escaped. We actually did it."

"Not all of us," Rey said. She wasn't the only one not amused, the others were all solemn as well. It wasn't just the Doctor and Ida they were leaving behind, it was Mr. Jefferson, Scooti, all the Ood. Not to mention all the crew members that were already gone by the time Rey and the others had arrived.

"We're not out of it yet," Zach reminded them. "We're still the first people in history to fly _away_ from a black hole. Toby, read me the stats."

"Gravity funnel holding, sir," he reported, still smirking. "Always holding… Stats at 53, funnel status at 66.5. Hull pressure constant. Smooth as we can, sir. All the way back home. Coordinates set for Planet Earth."

Rose gazed longingly out the window. Given half a chance, she still would choose to go back to the Doctor. Toby eyed her, then fixed his gaze on Rey. She didn't even need to look up to feel it. "What is it?"

"What did it mean when it called you 'the girl with no name?'"

"I don't know," she said with false ease. Slowly, she used her foot to drag the bolt gun closer towards her. The sound of it scraping against the ground echoed in her ears. Impossibly, the others didn't seem to notice.

"Do you think it meant that you're going to lose it? Maybe someone is going to take it from you." He chuckled sadistically.

"A better question might be: did you really think you could get out this way?" That got her everyone's attention. In one fluid motion she kicked the gun up in the air and caught it. Aiming it squarely at Toby, she dared him to try something. "You were very obvious."

"Rey," Rose gasped out sharply.

"She's lost it," Toby denied, trying to convince the others.

"What the hell," Danny asked. "I know Toby can be a jerk, but that's no reason to shoot him."

"That's not Toby anymore," she stated definitively. "Think about it: the Beast said we were going to die, and now it's just letting us go? It doesn't make sense. It could have destroyed the oxygen field, or ignited the base, or destabilized the shields so the next quake caused total collapse. There was no need to reveal itself in the first place unless it wanted us scared. It wanted us to run so it could come with." Even all the theatrics in the Exploration Deck were planned. It chose to reveal that image of the horned beast so they would associate them together, so they'd think it wasn't a formless conscious plaguing them, it was the devil.

She chanced a glance at the screen beside Toby, checking to see how far they'd gotten. They were nearly beyond the pull of the singularity, not even a minute away from leaving being home free.

"She's seriously lost it," Toby said again. "Captain, you can't believe a word she says! Danny? We worked together for years! Rose?" He turned to each person as he personally pleaded to them to listen.

Suddenly, the rocket began to shake violently.

"What happened," Danny asked. "What was that?!"

"What's he doing," Toby yelled. "What is he doing?"

"We've lost the funnel," Zach announced. "Gravity collapse!"

"What does that mean," Rose asked.

"We can't escape. We're headed straight for the black hole!"

But while everyone else was panicking, Rey felt a rush of something like victory. The funnel wouldn't collapse on its own—someone had to have done something to destabilize it. And she knew exactly who would.

Rose glanced out the window. "It's the planet. The planet's moving. It's falling."

She didn't look away from Toby. He changed in front of all of them—his eyes glowing red and black symbols appearing on his skin. "I am the rage," he yelled in the Beast's voice, fast and scared. "And the bile and the ferocity."

"Just do something," Rose screamed.

"I am the Prince and the Fall and the Darkness—"

"It's him," Danny exclaimed. "It's him! It's him!"

"Stay where you are," Zach shouted. "The ship's not stable!" A trail of fire burst from Toby's mouth like he was a dragon. "What is he?! What the _hell_ is he?!"

"I shall never die," it snarled. "The thought of me is forever! In the bleeding hearts of men—in their vanity and obsession and lust— Nothing shall ever destroy me. Nothing!"

"Oh, shut up."

Rey jerked her arm to the side and shot out the front window. The glass shattered, and the sudden pressure change as the rocket's interior was exposed to the vacuum of space threatened to tear the cockpit apart. Her hair whipped in front of her face, and the breath was ripped from her lungs. Everything was shaking; there was no more up or down,

Half-blind, she somehow succeeded in undoing Toby's seatbelt. He was pulled out of the window, body headed straight for the singularity.

"Emergency shield!" Zach's hand slammed down on a button to activate them sealing the hole. Without the funnel to form a safe path, the rocket was still getting dragged into the black hole's gravitational pull. "We can't escape!"

"But we stopped him," Rose protested. "That's what the Doctor would've done."

"Some victory. We're going in."

The rocket spiraled closer and closer. Danny checked the computer screen. By some miracle, the systems were still working despite all the interference. "The planet's lost orbit! It's falling!"

Surprisingly, Rose grabbed Rey's arm. Maybe she wanted some comfort in what she thought would be her last moments, or maybe she was trying to give Rey some comfort instead. Rey herself didn't have the current mental capacity to properly mull the action over. Her mind was blank, but it was far from a blessing. She felt like an exposed nerve or an open receptacle. She was filling up, up, up to the brim and over.

"The planet's gone," Danny told them. "I'm sorry."

"Accelerate," Zach ordered futilely. "I did my best. But hey—first human beings to fall inside a black hole. How about that? History."

She closed her eyes, waiting for impact or loss of consciousness or something…

Nothing happened. The shaking and all the noise stopped.

"What's happened," Rose asked.

Dynamic weight transfer took over, causing them all to lean to one side. But that could only work if there was gravity…

"We're… turning," Zach said, confused. "We're turning around. We're turning away!"

"Sorry about the hijack, Captain." The Doctor's voice over the comm snapped her out of her mind. The TARDIS rotor echoed in the background, and it was the best sound she'd ever heard. "This is the good ship TARDIS. Now, first thing's first—have you got a Rey and a Rose Tyler on board?"

"I'm here," Rose answered quickly. She teared up again, this time from joy. "It's me! We're both here! Oh my God! Where are you?"

"I'm just towing you home. Gravity-schmavity. My people practically invented black holes. Well—in fact, they did. Rey? You alright?"

She nodded, then remembered that he couldn't actually see her. "Yes. But after this you owe me some library time."

A nice stretch of relaxation with a few good books sounded great. He laughed and readily agreed. "In a couple of minutes, we'll be nice and safe. Oh, and Captain—can we do a swap? Say, if you give me Rey and Rose, I'll give you Ida Scott? How about that?"

"She's alive," Zach realized, happier than Rey had ever seen him.

"Yes," Danny cheered. "Thank God."

"Yeah! Bit of oxygen starvation, but she should be alright." More reserved, he added, "I couldn't save the Ood. I only had time for one trip. They went down with the planet." A moment of silence passed while they mourned the dead before the Doctor announced that they were now in clear space.

When they finally did make the exchange, Rose burst through the TARDIS doors and ran straight for the Doctor. They hugged fiercely, him lifting her feet clear off the floor before the dissolved in a giggle fit. Rey entered much more calmly, closing the doors behind her. She watched the reunion fondly, unsure why her chest ached at the scene. It was a happy sight, wasn't it?

He caught her gaze. She looked away quickly and walked over to him slowly. Rose fell silent.

Part of her was angry about the worry he'd caused her and the risks he'd taken. That part eased a little with seeing that he was alright, but it wasn't wiped away completely. She had a feeling that it would always stay with her, refreshed with every uncertainty and insecurity.

He stood still, waiting for her to make the first move. She took her time one part little bit of petty revenge, but she also wasn't sure what to do. Hugs were… well, they were never her thing. She prepared herself for them, and she only recently learned they could feel nice. But even when she was the most relieved, it was never her first instinct to pull someone into a hug.

She took his hand. Just that.

He squeezed back tightly.

"Zach," he called through the comm without letting go. "We'll be off, now. Have a good trip home. And next time you get curious about something—oh… what's the point? You'll just go blundering in. The human race…"

"But Doctor, what did you find down there," Ida asked. "That creature—what was it?"

"I don't know," he admitted, not sounding the least bit upset. "Never did decipher that writing. But that's good! Day I know everything? Might as well stop."

"What do you think it was," Rose asked him. "Really?"

"I think… we beat it. That's good enough for me."

"It said I was gonna die in battle."

Rey turned to her. "It lied," she said plainly. "Haven't you learned? The future is always changing."

Rose smiled and nodded.

"Right," the Doctor said. "Onwards, upwards—Ida—see you again, maybe!"

"I hope so."

"And thanks, boys," Rose called out.

"Have a safe trip," Rey beckoned.

"Hang on, though, Doctor. You never really said… you three… who are you," Ida asked.

"Oh…" He glanced over at Rey and Rose. "The stuff of legend."

He pulled a lever. The rotor rose and fell, and the console let out its signature wheeze as the TARDIS took off.


	12. The Rings of Akhaten

**I LIVE!**

 **Wow, this really should have been done weeks ago. Not gonna lie guys, writing this chapter felt like pulling teeth at times. I must've rewritten the last third of it four or five times... I knew what I wanted to happen, but I just couldn't get it to flow the way I wanted. So if any of you are also unhappy, I'm sorry, I tried my best.**

 **AKA In Which Money is Memoirs, Souls are Stories, and Life is Infinite**

* * *

No matter how terrible they were when they started out, anyone could improve given enough time and practice. It took an average of ten thousand hours to master a skill—no time at all, really, for a Time Lord. The Doctor's quick doodles were still crude more often than not. His sketches were lovely as soon as he stopped trying to draw everything at once and worked on one part at a time. But Rey always thought that painting was where his real skill lay.

She always took him for the sort that preferred impressionism or surrealism, until she actually saw him paint once. The moment she did, it clicked into place. Of course he would favor realism with a bias for portraits. Of course he would.

He wouldn't let her peek at this current project, claiming spoilers. She had a few theories as to what it was, but spoilers were spoilers, so she tried not to think about it. In theory, she agreed with their system. Foreknowledge was dangerous, even a little boring, and it always felt a little like cheating. In practice though, she was insanely curious. Even if it led to tragedy or heartbreak, she still maintained that it was better to know. Better to know and give it her all to change things than to be left always wondering. Maybe she would still fail, but at least she'd _know_ she'd tried all she could.

She flipped the page of the book she was reading and ignored the sounds of the Doctor's brushstrokes and noises of irritation. Like every artist, he didn't just churn out masterpiece after masterpiece. He messed up, changed his mind, painted over and started again.

"No," he scolded the canvas. "No, no, no. Don't do that. No."

She flipped another page. _A Brief History of Mitigating Factors Leading to the Development of Faster than Light Travel on Earth_ sounded like a complete bore, but the author managed to make it fascinating. She was basically tuning the Doctor out now. There wouldn't be much cause for worry unless he brought out the flamethrower again.

"Urg, no! Stop that!"

Probably.

"Why you—"

"Doctor?"

He looked up, brush in one hand and sonic in the other. She didn't know what he planned on using it for, but she had a feeling it would end in an explosion somehow. They'd had plenty of those inside the TARDIS, but her ears were still ringing from yesterday. The largest fireworks show in the universe sounded amazing until you had to stop a dragon from setting fire to all the gunpowder.

On the upside: dragon riding.

"Can we have lunch? I'm getting hungry."

He beamed at her, and she could read pride in his face. It made her want to shuffle her feet, except she was sitting down so that would just look weird. All she had done was asked for food, it was nothing to be proud about.

But a younger Rey, new to everything, probably wouldn't have asked. She would've ignored her hunger and waited until someone else suggested lunch or just gone hungry. Maybe one day she wouldn't even feel like she needed to ask for permission. For now, it was just embarrassing that the Doctor reacted how he did, calling attention to something that was normal for anyone else.

Embarrassing, and a little heartfelt because he knew her well enough to know when she was making progress. Because he was proud of her progress, even when it was miniscule by anyone else's standards.

He dropped the brush, tucked the sonic back in his pocket, and walked over to her. "What do you feel like?"

She set her book aside and took the hand he offered. "Something… new."

Just eating was an adventure on its own. There was a whole universe of different spices and seasonings out there. The first time she tried something other than the hospital gruel, it had nearly overwhelmed her palate. She was slowly working her way up from insipid to tasty. So far, she didn't really like most of the sour foods she'd tried, and she had a weak spot for the spicy ones.

"Oh, I know!" He punched in coordinates and motioned for her to pull the lever. "You're gonna love this!"

* * *

Of all the places to land after a jump, Rey never expected a graveyard. She had never been in one before, and now that she had, she found there was something a little unsettling about the rows and rows of tombstones. Maybe it was the disconnect between the magnitude of people's lives—all the people they must've known and all the things they must've cared for—and the way they ended up boxed in and in the ground. Lined up beneath nearly identical stela with only names and dates to tell them apart.

A thought passed through her head, one equal parts bewildering and sad. When the Doctor died, would he get a grave like one of these? Would he want one?

She found him hanging back by the tree line, watching as a teenaged brunette clung to the book in her arms. She stood in front of a grave with a tall man by her side, gazing sadly at the stone marker as if she could wish the person buried beneath it back to life with her sheer force of will. The Doctor watched the girl and Rey watched the Doctor, wondering why they were there.

"Hello again."

He smiled when he saw her, tired eyes crinkling into crescents. She took note of his appearance—slightly rumpled shirt, a few fraying seams on the sleeve of his jacket, crooked bowtie—for the Doctor, this was downright sloppy. The only times he got like this were when he was too wrapped up in a mystery or disaster to care about how he looked.

"Was that Clara?" Though she had jumped this far into the Doctor's timeline a couple of times before, never had she actually met his latest companion. The curious Clara Oswald. The Doctor's description of her—"Your height, big eyes, brown hair"—had left much to the imagination.

He nodded, leading her back to the TARDIS silently. A picture of Clara, slightly older and dressed in Victorian era garb, was up on the monitor. She looked away quickly as the Doctor took it down. Spoilers.

The Doctor stared at the monitor, looking troubled. From the glow it cast on his face, she could tell that he was looking at something new, but she didn't dare check to what. Instead, she reached out and put a gloved hand lightly on top of his. She had just come from an ice planet. The tundra contained the largest frozen over ocean in the universe. Two million years and it showed no signs of melting. The high salt concentration made the surface look like a mirror, reflecting the night sky in a dazzling display of light.

They sold a delicacy there that was both frozen and spicy. After lunch, He had taught her how to ice skate under the stars.

He turned his hand so it was palm up and laced their fingers together. Rey felt like something terrible had happened. Something had shaken the Doctor to his core, and she wasn't allowed to know what.

Squeezing tightly, she tried without speaking to tell him that whatever it was, he wasn't alone.

When the moment passed, he was back to his old cheerful and animated self. "Well then, busy day, lots to do. For starters, you need to meet Clara." He pulled a lever to initiate the dematerialization and in no time they were off to Clara's house. Or rather, the house she was currently staying in, Earth, 2013. She bounded into the TARDIS when she heard them coming, demanding they take off immediately. It was like watching a child in a candy store, full of excitement and hyperactive energy.

"So we're moving through actual time? So what's it made of? Time? If you can just rotor through it, it must be made of stuff, like jam's made of strawberries. So what's it made of?"

"Not strawberries," Rey confirmed.

"No," the Doctor agreed, playing along. "No, no, no. that would be unacceptable."

He walked around one side of the console and Clara rushed around the other to follow him. "And we can go anywhere?"

"Within reason. Well, I say reason…" He shot Rey a rueful smile.

The exchange went completely over Clara's head. "So, we could go backwards in time?"

"And space," she added.

"And forwards in time."

"And space," the Doctor repeated. "Totally. So, where do you want to go, eh? What do you want to see?"

"I don't know. You know when someone asks you your favourite book and you forget every book you've read?"

He shook his head, hurrying to the other side of the console next to Rey. "No. Totally not."

"Well. That's a thing. That happens."

"And? Back to the question."

"Okay. So… so… so…" Clara scurried to the door, stopping just shy of it. "So I'd like to see… I would like to see… What I would like to see is…" She turned to face the Doctor and Rey. "Something awesome."

The Doctor snapped, setting the TARDIS in motion. He clearly already had a specific destination in mind since the trip was so short. As they came to a stop, without the familiar jerking shake Rey associated with landing, he grinned and told Clara to close her eyes.

She opened the doors and felt her breath catch in her throat. He glanced over at her and smiled, pleased with her reaction. "Awesome," seemed to fall a little short of describing this.

"Can you feel the light on your eyelids," he asked Clara. She gave an affirmative sound. "That's the light of an alien sun. Okay. Are you ready?"

"Yes. No. Yes." She opened her eyes slowly.

"Welcome to the Rings of Akhaten."

They were on a small asteroid that was part of one of the rings. The sun, huge and golden, burned like a beacon in the near distance. Upon another much larger asteroid, she spied a bustling city.

"It's…" Clara was at a loss for words.

"It is," the Doctor agreed. "It so completely is." He looked to Rey as if for confirmation. She reached for him blindly without taking her eyes off the sight, hand wrapping around the sleeve of his jacket. "But wait! There's more."

"More what," Clara asked.

"Wait, wait, wait." He checked his watch. "In about 5… 4… 3… 2…" At the count of one, the rock they were on crossed another in a smaller orbit. A large pyramid was situated atop. As it passed, it caught the light of the sun, glittering as if it was a second star.

"What is it," Rey asked.

"The Pyramid of the Rings of Akhaten. It's a holy site for the Sun-Singers of Akhet."

That rang a bell. She had a book on cultural histories of the universe in her TARDIS room. It was one of those bigger on the inside books—thankfully, since she wouldn't be able to carry it if it wasn't. She'd developed a habit of marking passages that were of interest to her for later in-depth research. Or future trips. The Sun-Singers of Akhet had a short blurb, not even a chapter of their own, but the history sounded fascinating.

Had the Doctor taken a peek? She found that she wasn't very bothered by the idea if he had. Or maybe he just knew her that well.

"The who of what?"

"This system has seven worlds orbiting the same star," she explained calmly. "They all share the belief that life in the universe originated here, on that planet."

"All life?"

"In the entire universe," she confirmed.

"Did it?"

Clara glanced over at them curiously. "Well, it's what they believe," the Doctor said. "It's a nice story."

"Can we see it up close," Rey asked, already knowing the answer. He grinned and gestured for them to re-enter the TARDIS.

This time, they materialized behind some stalls in the city she had seen earlier. It looked like every bazaar, marketplace, and fair in all of her books put together. The smaller stores were like booths, easily set up and packed away. The larger stores, the more affluent ones, were more permanent fixtures with actual walls to protect the merchandise. And what wondrous merchandise there was. Everything from food to jewelry to transportation, all just a few steps from one another.

Clara stopped short when she saw all the different aliens in the street. Then, as if mesmerized, she walked forward, eyes never lingering in one place for long. "Where are they from," she asked.

"Oh, you know, the local system mostly," the Doctor replied.

"What do I call them?"

"Well, let's see. There go some Panbabylonians, a Lugal-Irra-Kusn. Some Lucanians. A Hooloovoo." He pointed each out as he named them. "Ah! Qurn VoTivig. That chap's a Terrabeserker of the Kodian Belt. You don't see many of them around anymore. Oh! That's a Ultramance. You know, I forget how much I like it here, we should come here more often."

"You've been here before?"

"Yes. I came here a long time ago with my granddaughter." Without another word, he took off. Rey followed at his side, surprised he had even brought up Susan.

One day, with a serious look in his face, so worried he was practically shaking, he had sat her down and told her about things she knew for a fact he hadn't spoken of in a long, long time. Probably, he had been nervous about how she would react, but there had been no need. Her only disappointment was that she would never get to meet his family.

They stopped at a stall selling fruit, in front of which he patted his pockets, looking for the sonic. She looked at him with a straight face. It took a moment, but he pouted at her when he realized that the reason he couldn't find it was because she had taken the screwdriver. The pout dissolved into a fond grin when she handed it over.

He scanned the bowl of glowing blue spheres. "Exotic fruit of some description. Non-toxic. Non-hallucinogenic. High in free radicals. And low in other stuff, I shouldn't wonder."

She passed when he offered her one. The last time she ate blue fruit it tasted like sour cream and eggs, which was an even worse combination in reality than it sounded. Clara took a bite and quickly shook her head. "No?" She put the rest of the fruit back in the basket as her reply.

"So why's everyone here," she asked.

The Doctor slung one arm around her. Rey fell into step at his other side. "For the Festival of Offerings. Takes place every thousand years of so, when the rings align. It's quite a big thing, locally. Like Pancake Tuesday." He dropped his arm and wandered ahead a bit.

Clara turned and came face to face with an alien with canine features. "Whoa!" It barked at her, snarls causing her to lean back in slight fear. "Erm, Doctor? Rey? What's happening? Why's it angry?"

"Well, not an it for starters," Rey told her. The TARDIS's translation matrix must've been glitching again. That, or she didn't like Clara very much since Rey could understand her perfectly.

"Yes, Clara, listen to Rey. This is a she. Dor'een, meet Clara. Clara, meet Dor'een."

"Doreen," Clara repeated disbelievingly.

"It's a very loose translation" Rey dismissed, giving the Doctor a look. He knew how much a stickler she was for specificity. But Clara was beginning to look a bit overwhelmed, so she let it slide. This was her first trip, after all. Dor'een didn't seem to mind either.

"She sounds a bit grumpy," the Doctor continued, "but she's a total love, actually, aren't you?" He tickled Dor'een beneath her chin. "Yes, you are. She's just asking if we fancy renting a moped."

Clara and Doreen exchanged barks. "So, how much does it cost?"

"Not money. Something valuable," the Doctor told her. "Sentimental value. A photograph, love letter, something like that. That's what's used for currency here. Psychometry. Objects psychically imprinted with their history. The more treasured they are, the more value they hold."

"That's horrible."

"Is it," Rey asked. To her, it was a much better system than pieces of paper with numbers printed on them. How many of the rich wasted money like it was air, hoarding or throwing it away without realizing what it could do for someone else. "This way, you know the importance of what you're giving up." Clara still didn't look convinced. "In any case, the objects are just the physical, the memories you still keep."

"Then you pay," Clara said to them.

"With what," the Doctor asked.

"You're a thousand years old. You must have something you care about."

A pained look crossed his face, and then in a split second it was gone so fast, Rey wondered if she hadn't imagined it. Maybe it was just the shadows, playing tricks with her eyes. He patted the pocket he had tucked the sonic in, then thought better of it and walked away. Clara, preoccupied with looking around, didn't notice until he was out of sight.

"Doctor? Doctor? Rey, where did—" A small girl crashed into her before she could finish the sentence.

"Are you okay," Rey asked.

The girl looked terrified. She ran off instead of answering, sprinting at full speed.

Two men dressed very similarly to the girl approached them. "Have you seen her?"

"Who?"

"The Queen of Years."

"Who," Clara repeated.

Rey pointed east, the direction opposite from where the girl ran towards. The men hurried off without another word, leaving Clara very confused and Rey with a slight frown tugging on her lips. "Come on." She ushered Clara to join her as she headed west. A warehouse stood a little ways down the road, dark and cluttered and obviously the sort that was overlooked when people passed by.

Spotting their target, peeking out from behind some boxes, Clara called out. "Hey! Are you okay? Are you lost?"

Scared, the girl ran off again. They searched the warehouse together. Looking for places a child might hide in meant going slow and looking low. Rey was particularly good at finding little crevices that a small body might squeeze into. She heard a clatter and scream from behind her and spun around to see the Queen of Years on the floor and breathing heavily.

Clara smiled and began to laugh. The girl slowly joined in, finally relaxing. "Are you alright," Rey asked.

She nodded.

"Why are you hiding," Clara asked.

"You don't know me?" Rey shook her head. It wasn't technically a lie. Thanks to the men she had a sneaking suspicion were guards, she knew this was the Queen of Years. Her book only had two sentences on her—not much to go on. Besides, know who the girl was didn't tell her anything about _who_ she was, and Clara was even more in the dark. "So, why did you two follow me?"

"You looked lost," she said simply, taking a small step closer.

"We wanted to help," Clara added.

"I don't believe you."

"I've got no idea who you might be," Clara whispered. "I've never been here before, I've never even been anywhere like here before. We just saw a little girl who looked like she needed help."

Rey let her talk, knowing it would sound more genuine if it didn't come from her. Children were the best at picking up on nuances, but scared children often interpreted them incorrectly. The last thing she wanted was to send the Queen of Years running off again with her blank face.

"Really?"

"Really, really."

"Can you help me?"

Clara smiled. "That's why we're still here."

"Because I need to hide." She glanced over her shoulder to the warehouse's entrance. The air in the street suddenly swirled black as three mysterious figures appeared. They wore identical outfits of black leather with masks over their faces.

"Merry, where are you," one of the breathed out.

Rey considered the situation. "I know the best place to hide. Would you let me show you?"

"Merry, where are you? Merry, Merry, Merry."

She nodded.

Clara took Merry's hand as they snuck back outside. Rey led the way. She weaved them through the crowd, using the excess of bodies to hide them from the creatures. When they finally reached the TARDIS, Merry looked at it in confusion. "What's this?"

"The best place," Rey explained. Wasn't it obvious?

"It's a space-shippy thing," Clara unhelpfully added. "Timey, spacey."

"It's teeny."

"You wait!" Clara pulled on the doors, but they refused to budge. Rey arched a brow. She had never seen that happen before. Even without a key, unless one of them had specifically locked her, the TARDIS usually opened for one of the Doctor's companions. "Oh, come on."

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know. I don't think it likes me." She knocked and tried pulling the handles again. "Come on. Let me in."

Rey opened her mouth to explain she had a key when Merry wandered behind TARDIS. She settled down with her back against the blue box. It wasn't a bad hiding place, out of view and out of the way. She leaned against the back next to Merry while Clara sat of the girl's other side. "So what's happening? Is someone trying to hurt you?"

"No. I'm just scared."

"Of what," Rey asked.

"Getting it wrong."

Clara blinked. "Okay. Can you pretend like I'm totally a space alien and explain?"

"I'm Merry Gejelh."

"Really not local. Sorry."

"The Queen of Years," she clarified. "They chose me when I was a baby, the day the last Queen of Years died."

"Okay." Clara nodded, following but still not getting the big picture.

"The Queen of Years acts as a living vessel of history," Rey explained. "Merry here knows every chronicle, poem, legend, and song."

"Every single one? Blimey, I hated history."

Merry nodded. "And now I have to sing a song in front of everyone. A special song. I have to sing to a god. And I'm really scared."

"Everyone's scared when they're little," Clara said comfortingly. She told a story of how she had gotten lost at Blackpool beach one day, how it was her worst nightmare come true, and how her mother found her in the end and made her feel better.

"And you were never scared again," Merry asked hopefully.

"Oh, I was scared lots of times. But never of being lost."

Still hesitating, Merry turned to look at Rey. "What about you? Are you scared of anything?"

"Loads of things. I was stuck somewhere for a long time and I used to be afraid I would die before getting out. One day the earth shook, the ceiling gave in, and it felt like I was breathing fire instead of air." She let out a huff, blowing her hair out of her face. Clara was looking at her curiously too now. "When I opened my eyes I was in a different galaxy, standing barefoot in the snow."

"And then?"

Then she met the Doctor. "You're skipping the important part: I got out. Clara was found. Both our fears happened, and we were both still okay. So what are you scared of?"

"Getting it wrong," Merry said again. "Making Grandfather angry."

"And do you think you'll get it wrong," Clara asked. "Because I don't. I don't think you'll get it wrong. I think you, Merry Gejelh, will get it very, very right."

Merry smiled and hugged Clara fiercely. Rey had to hand it to her, Clara was excellent with kids. Together, the three of them got up and headed back to the marketplace. With only a little reluctance, Merry let go of Clara's hand and went with the two men sent out to look for her. She cast one last look at Rey and Clara before walking off.

The Doctor approached them as Merry left, munching on one of the blue fruits. "What have you two been doing?"

"Exploring," Clara said.

"We went on an adventure," Rey added.

He smiled at her fondly. As the sun began to set, he led them in the direction of the amphitheater. The stadium was huge, and the stands were already packed. Of course, they were also running late. The Doctor was practically climbing over people to get to their seats, repeating "Shh," in a loud whisper. "Sorry, Sorry, excuse me. Sorry, excuse me."

Rey joined him, internally bristling a little at the lack of personal space. She didn't much mind the arm that was pressed up against the Doctor's, but she could do without the knee pressing into her back, or the back in front of her that was nearly in her lap. It was one thing to be packed in a tight space if it saved their lives, but it was another thing for strangers or near strangers to be so close when it wasn't a life or death situation.

"Are we even supposed to be here," Clara whispered from her right only for the Doctor to shush her. "But are we?"

He shushed her again and apologized to the person on Clara's other side.

In the center of the amphitheater, backed by the large temple, was a podium. Merry stood there nervously, throwing what she thought were discrete looks behind her. She caught Clara's eye when she glanced up, took a deep breath, and began to sing.

" _Akhaten… Oh, god of Akhaten…"_

"She singing to Akhaten in the Temple," Rey explained to Clara quietly. "They call him the Old God, or sometimes Grandfather."

" _Oh, god of Akhaten…_ "

"What song are they singing," she asked.

"The Long Song. It's lullaby without end to feed Grandfather and keep him asleep. It's been going for millions of years. Every generation, a Chorister hands it over to the next Chorister, and the next."

" _Akhaten…_ "

Around them, members of the crowd held up their hands. Each one of them had something they considered valuable. Offerings, Rey realized. They were offering mementos to feed the Old God.

" _Oh, god of… oh, god of… oh god of Akhaten,_ " Merry continued to sing. The audience began to join in, as did the Doctor. Or, at least, he tried. He seemed to have forgotten the words.

Before all the offerings could be received, something horrific began to happen, seemingly without cause. Merry's expression became fearful as she turned to properly face the crowd. The song died on her lips, and a force field surrounded her, lifting her off the pedestal.

Rey tensed. Next to her Clara asked what was going on. "Is this supposed to happen?"

Merry flailed. "Help!"

"Is somebody going to do something? Excuse me? Is somebody going to help her?"

But no one did. Merry was pulled off towards the temple without anyone so much as reaching for her. Rey sprang to her feet, pushing past the crowd members between her and the aisle without care. The Doctor was right behind her, and Clara chased after him. She led the way back through the marketplace, one particular stall in mind as their destination—no, as a pit stop.

"Why are we walking away," Clara called after them. "We can't just walk away. This is my fault! I talked her into doing this!"

The Doctor stopped and walked back to Clara. "Listen. There's one thing you need to know about traveling with us… well, one thing apart from the blue box, the two hearts, and Rey. We don't walk away."

They tried to convince Dor'een that it was urgent, but the shopkeeper would budge. "I need something important." Reluctantly, they looked to Clara. The Doctor only had the sonic and psychic paper on him, both of which were out of the question.

"Well, you must have something, all the places you've seen," Clara said.

"This." The Doctor pulled out the sonic. "I don't want to give it away. It comes in handy."

"You're a thousand years old," she complained. "And that's it, your spanner?"

"Screwdriver," Rey corrected.

Clara glanced down at her right hand. She fingered the ring she wore there. "It's my mum's." They were silent, letting her make the decision herself. Quickly, afraid she'd change her mind if she moved too slow, Clara pulled it off and handed it to Dor'een.

The ring wasn't just good for a moped, but the fastest model Dor'een had, plus a sidecar. The Doctor steered them off the asteroid, headed towards Merry. She was still floating in space, force field protecting her as she was pulled towards the temple. Clara helped keep Rey steady as she reached for Merry. Their hands grazed for a moment before Merry was pulled down into the temple with a scream.

They zoomed after her. "Brakes," Clara yelled as the Doctor showed no sign of slowing. "Breaks!"

The stop was sudden and abrupt, but not painful. For Rey, at least. Clara had thrown her arms around the Doctor's middle and was currently squeezing his ribs. "Okay, time to let go," he said.

"I can't."

"Clara, you have to."

"Why?"

"Because it really hurts."

She quickly released her hold. "Sorry."

Rey hopped off and approached the sealed temple door. The Doctor scanned it with the sonic. His face made that weird expression where he wanted to smile and frown at the same time when he read the results. "Oh, that's interesting. A frequency modulated acoustic lock. They key changes ten million, zillion, squillion times a second."

"Can you open it," she asked.

"Technically, no. In reality, also no. But still… let's give it a stab." He charged. Clara covered her eyes with a squeak, but Rey kept hers open and watched as he basically bounced back with naught to show for it but a sore shoulder. Stubbornly, he tried the sonic again, and when that didn't work, began pounding on the door.

"How can they just stand there and watch," Clara asked, horrified.

"This is sacred ground to them," she told her.

"And she's a child."

"And he's a god. At least, to them anyway."

The Doctor tried the sonic again while Clara called out to try and reassure Merry they were coming. Rey racked her brain for an idea when one just hit her. "Acoustic tumblers," she blurted out, trying to remember the right way to put her thoughts into words.

"Yes," the Doctor said excitedly. "Yes, yes, yes, oh! Hello!" He kissed the crown of her head before aiming the sonic at the base of the door. "The sonic's locked on to the acoustic tumblers."

"Meaning," Clara asked.

"Meaning, I've got this."

The door rose slowly. Inside, Merry had her feet firmly on the ground, force field gone. A priest of indeterminate age was with her, still singing to Grandfather. The Old God sat in a throne in front of them, separated by a thin glass.

"Hello, there. I'm the Doctor. And you've met Rey and Clara. This was supposed to be a nice day out. Still early yet." He shut the sonic off, then quickly turned it back on as the door began to close again. "Are you coming, then? Did I mention that the door is immensely heavy?"

"Leave," Merry yelled. "You'll wake him!"

He was forced down on one knee. "Really quite extraordinarily heavy. Rey? Clara?"

The two girls scooted past him into the temple. Clara tried to convince Merry to leave with them, but she lashed out. "You said I wouldn't get it wrong and then I got it wrong! And now this had happened. Look what's happened!"

"You didn't get it wrong," Rey told her as the Doctor let out a groan. "We're not leaving without you."

"How do you know? You don't know anything! You have to go! Go now! Or he'll eat us all."

"Well, he's ugly," Clara shot back. "But, you know, to be honest…" She stepped onto the dais to get a closer look before turning back to Merry. "I don't think he looks big enough."

"Not our meat," Merry corrected fearfully. "Our souls." She refused to take Clara's hand, lashing out with a low-level telekinetic ability that pinned Clara to the case. Rey suspected she couldn't control it since she kept telling them to go. "He doesn't want you, he wants me. If you don't leave, he'll eat you all up too."

"Yes, and you don't want that, do you," the Doctor grunted out. "You want us to walk out of this really quite astonishingly heavy door and never come back."

"Yes."

"I see. Right. Rey's right. Absolutely never going to happen. Oooh-oooh-ooh." He switched the sonic off and rolled across the floor to make it inside without getting crushed.

"Did you just lock us in," Clara asked.

"Yep."

"With a soul-eating monster?"

"Yep."

"Better than the devil," she mumbled, earning a considering nod from the Doctor and a confused one from Clara.

She could actually see the moment Clara mentally shook her head and decided not to ask. "And is there actually a way to get out?"

"What? Before it eats our souls?"

"Ideally, yes," Rey replied.

He came up next to her. "Possibly. Probably. There usually seems to be."

"Why is he still singing," Clara asked.

"He's in denial."

The Doctor kneeled in front of the priest. "He's trying to sing the Old God back to sleep. It's not going to happen. He's waking up, mate. He's coming, ready or not. You want to run." The Priest stopped singing. "That's it, then? Song's over."

"The song is over," he confirmed, standing. "My name is Choister Rezh Bapix, and the Last Song ended with me." He pushed up his sleeve, pressed a button on his bracelet, and disappeared.

Rey wondered if this was what it felt like when someone was stuck walking through the rain and a car just drove past them. Through a puddle. Of muddy water.

"That's it, then! Song's over!" The Doctor turned and aimed the sonic at the enthroned mummy behind a still stuck Clara. It roared, leaning forward as if it planned on dive-bombing them. In response, he laughed and pressed against the glass dividing them. "Look at that."

"You've woken him," Merry shouted, also standing.

The mummy got up from its throne and started pounding against the glass. Clara, who couldn't turn her head, asked, "It's awake? What's it doing?"

"Oh, you know, having a nice stretch." The Doctor walked around the cage, then resumed his original position next to Rey. "No, we didn't wake him. And you didn't wake him either. He's waking because it's his time to wake. And feed. On you, apparently. On your stories."

"She didn't say stories, she said souls," Clara corrected.

"Isn't it the same thing," Rey asked rhetorically. "A body is made of atoms, and a soul is made of stories—the collective memory of your existence."

The Doctor nodded. "Everything that ever happened to us. People we love. People we lost. People we found again, against all the odds." Voice heavy, she was reminded of how tired he looked when she first met up with him earlier. "He threatens to wake, they offer him a pure soul. The soul of the Queen of Years."

"Stop it," Clara whispered. "You're scaring her."

"She should be scared," Rey said firmly. "She's sacrificing herself and she deserves to understand what that means. Do you, Merry?"

"A god chose me," she said in a weak voice.

"It's not a god. That thing will steal your life and feast on your soul, but that doesn't make it a god. It's a parasite and a frog in the well. You don't need to give yourself up to it."

"Do you mind if I tell you a story," the Doctor asked gently. "One you might not have heard?" Hesitantly, Merry nodded. He kept his focus on her, but one of his hands slipped into Rey's, thumb rubbing a familiar soothing pattern into her wrist.

"All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago, in the heart of a faraway star that exploded and died. The explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space. After so, so many millions of years, those elements came together to form new stars and new planets. And on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing-wax and cabbages and kings. Until eventually, they come together to make you. You're unique in the universe. There is only one Merry Gejelh, and there will never be another. Getting rid of that existence isn't a sacrifice, it is a waste."

"So, if I don't, then everyone else…" Merry trailed off, obviously conflicted.

"They'll be fine," Rey said.

"How?"

"There's always a way," the Doctor told her.

"You promise?"

"Cross my hearts." He held out his free hand for Merry, who gripped it tight. Then she turned to Clara and released her from the glass. It cracked behind her as the mummy kept banging.

She hurried over to Merry's side. "'Having a nice stretch?!'"

The ground began to shake before they could even make it over to the door. Rey felt the Doctor's hold on her hand tighten. Inwardly, she steeled herself. She really, really hated earthquakes, but now was not the time to panic. Panicking that could come after when they weren't about to be killed.

"Something's coming. What's coming?"

"The Vigil," Merry whispered.

"What's the Vigil," Rey asked her.

"If the Queen of Years is unwilling to be feasted upon…"

"Yes?"

"… it's their job to feed her to Grandfather."

The creatures she and Clara had seen earlier outside the warehouse, the ones in black leather and masks, appeared in front of the dais. The Doctor let go of Merry's hand to pull out the sonic while she apologized profusely.

"Don't you dare," Clara threatened as the Vigil approached them.

"Yeah, stay back. I'm armed. With a screwdriver."

One of them roared, knocking the sonic out of the Doctor's hand. Another bellow sent him flying, flipping him in the air before gravity dropped him harshly on his back. A third blew Rey back against the wall. Her head banged against the stone, making her vision swim. Through bleary eyes, she saw a brown blob that was probably Clara get pushed in the other direction. Merry tried to hide as they advanced, but there was nowhere for her to go. The Vigil dragged her forward, pushing her up the steps to stand before the cage.

"Doctor…" Half-blind, she fumbled for the sonic and tossed it to him. Blinking hard and fast to clear her sight, she stumbled to her feet.

He aimed at the Vigil, forcing them to let go of Merry. They put their hands up to create another force field to protect the mummy in the cage. Merry took the opportunity she saw, making a break for Clara. Rey stumbled over to the Doctor as he advanced.

"You know all the stories," she heard Clara say. "You must know if there's another way out."

"There's a tale. A secret song. 'The Thief of the Temple and the Nimmer's Door.'"

"And the secret songs open the secret door? How does it do? Can you sing it?"

Merry sang and a side door slid opened. "Go," Rey told them as the Doctor forced the Vigil back a few more steps.

"You too," he said to her without looking.

"As if. I leave when you leave."

He grimaced, pushing the Vigil back some more. Grabbing his arm, she pulled him along and ran through the secret door back outside the temple. Without really thinking about it, she raised the arm, the one that still held the sonic, and aimed it to close the door behind them. It wouldn't stop the Vigil for good, but it'd buy them a few extra minutes.

She looked up as the door slammed shut and realized how close the Doctor was. And that it was his hand that held the sonic still. He was practically wrapped around her, as she had essentially manhandled him like a puppet.

Letting go as if she had been burned, and feeling as warm as if she had actually been, she shuffled a few steps back. For reasons unknown, she felt a pang of disappointment that wasn't her own. Between what she was getting from everyone—fear, guilt, the amalgam that made up feeling thrill at a rush, and so much anger and hunger—the disappointment was both fleeting and difficult to pin down. It might've coming from the Doctor, but it might've come from her.

A beam of light shot out from the top of the pyramid, hitting the sun. The Vigil reappeared in front of them, and the Doctor used the sonic to force them to dissipate.

"Where did they go," Clara, who had her arms around Merry, asked nervously.

"Grandfather's awake," he told her. "They're of no function anymore."

"Well, you could sound happier about it."

He cleared his throat awkwardly. Something exploded in the distance. "Actually, I think I may have made a tactical boo-boo. More of a semantics mix-up, really."

"What boo-boo?"

"Don't tell me," Rey said in a flat voice, dread pooling in her gut. "The Old God isn't Grandfather, he's just Grandfather's alarm clock."

He winced. "How did you know?"

Clara piped in again. "Sorry, a bit lost. Who's the Old God? Is there an Old God."

"Unfortunately, yes."

Above them, the sun burned brighter. It almost looked as if it were expanding towards them.

"Oh my stars. What do we do?"

"Against that? I don't know. Do you know?" He turned to her. "I don't know. Any ideas?"

"But you promised," Merry yelled. "You promised!"

"I did. I did promise." The Doctor began to pace.

"He'll eat us all. He'll spread across the system, consuming the Seven Worlds. And when there's no more to eat, he'll embark on a new odyssey among the stars."

The sun's photosphere swirled as it pushed out further. "I say leg it," Clara suggested.

"Leg it where, exactly?"

"Don't know. Lake District?"

"Oh, the Lake District's lovely. Let's definitely go there. We can eat scones. They do great scones in 19…27." He looked up.

"You're going it fight it, aren't you," Rey asked quietly. She already knew the answer.

"Regrettably, yes. I think I may be about to do that."

"How do you fight a sun?"

"I've seen bigger," he fibbed.

Clara looked at both of them. "Really?"

"Are you joking? It's massive."

"I'm staying," Rey declared.

"No, you're not."

"Yes," Clara said. "We are. We can… assist."

"No, you can't."

"What about that stuff you said? 'We don't walk away'."

"No. We don't walk away but when we're holding onto something precious, we run. We run and run as fast as we can and we don't stop running until we're out from under the shadow. Now off you pop. Take the moped." He straightened his bowtie, firmly ending the discussion. "I'll walk."

"Doctor," Rey insisted, stopping him. She grabbed his arm to get him to face her. A rare indecipherable expression took over his face.

"Please, Rey," he said, barely louder than a whisper. At his side his hands were balled into fists. "Take Clara and Merry and go. _Please_."

Something caught in her throat and stung her eyes. He had never closed himself off from her like that before. She let her hand drop and he walked away without looking back.

Rey drove them back to the amphitheater in silence. Even from so far away, she could see the expanding sun. It was getting brighter and brighter, almost like sunrise. The crowd, partially clueless, knew enough to know something important was going on.

"Isn't he frightened," Merry asked.

"Very," she said without looking away from Grandfather's light.

"I want to help."

"So do I," Clara added.

Merry stepped back onto the pedestal. Her little body trembled in fear, but still she was brave. She looked towards the temple, took a deep breath, and began to sing. This song was different—she wasn't singing for the god to stay asleep, she sung for it to wake. Moved, the crowd joined in, a thousand voices singing in harmony.

A thought struck her.

She almost wished it hadn't.

"Do you remember what I said back in the market," she asked Clara. Her hand had come up to grasp the key hanging from her neck tightly.

"You said a lot of things…"

"About the currency they use here," she clarified. "I said that even if the physical object was gone, the memory remains."

"Okay, but how does that help us now?"

"I don't own a lot of things. The clothes I wear are borrowed from the TARDIS wardrobe. The books I read are from the library. Everything from before…" Her little drawer hadn't survived the quake. Her miniature library was gone. Miraculously, the doll and cloth it was wrapped in had made it. Even more miraculously, someone had the heart to return them to her. But neither were on her person here.

The journals were never really hers to begin with. Not so long as Dr. Usher perused them at his whim and mercy. Her new room at Nevermore was bare. There were little trinkets in her TARDIS room that came and went, but they never felt like hers. Most of them were the belongings of a future Rey's.

"All I have with me are these." She showed Clara what was around her neck: the TARDIS key and the silver chain it hung from. "I haven't had had the chain long enough for it to work, and the Doctor told me he'd rather die than hand over the TARDIS to anyone. If it fell into the wrong hands…"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Grandfather feeds on memories, and no one has more than the Doctor. If his aren't enough to stop Grandfather, then no one can. But…" She hated that she was doing this. She wasn't even sure if it would work. But if it saved the Doctor, how could she not try?

Clara reached out for her arm. She jolted at the contact but didn't move away. "What do you need?"

She looked so eager. Eager and desperate not just to help, but to prove herself. Rey had seen it the first time she laid eyes on Clara. Now, her eagerness just made her feel worse.

But she couldn't think of any other way.

"What if we didn't feed him memories? What if we fed Grandfather possibilities? The infinite possibilities of a life cut short."

"I don't get it. What are you asking? Just tell me what you're trying to say?" Tears welled in Clara's eyes. Tears fell when she told Clara her idea.

Clara's mother had died young. She died with decades of possibilities in front of her. Memories were singular, but possibilities were infinite. If they could feed Grandfather with something that represented Clara's life with her mother, maybe they could satiate him. But it couldn't be any old thing, it had to be meaningful.

"Okay." She swallowed and dried her eyes.

"Clara—" Rey began.

She shook her head. "I said 'okay.' If it saves the Doctor and all these people—okay. It's what she would've wanted me to do."

Rey drove to the TARDIS like a madwoman. The doors burst without her even needing to fit the key in the lock. Clara dug through her bag in a flurry, pulling out the book Rey had seen her holding in the graveyard. _101 Places to See._ Pressed between the front cover and the first page was a large, dried leaf.

Clara stared at it for a moment, burning all the details, every little crease and tear, every shade and shift in colour into her memory. "Let's go," she said, tucking it back in the book and bringing them both along.

Rey didn't try to comfort her. She didn't know how. Anything coming from her would fall short. She thought about her doll, how happy and relieved she'd been when she found out it survived. She thought about how she'd feel if someone told her to give it up.

She didn't have any right to even try and comfort Clara, not when she had all but asked her to lose her mother all over again.

They abandoned the moped in front of the temple and ran to the back at a sprint. The Doctor was on his knees, head hanging with a defeated look on his face. He looked up when he saw them, relief and hope warring with fear and dread.

"Still hungry?" Clara opened the book. "Well, I brought something for you. This. The most important leaf in human history." She held it up, taking strength from the Doctor and Rey and she remembered her mother. "It's full of stories, full of history. And full of a future that never got lived. Days that should have been that never were. Passed on to me."

The Doctor looked questioningly between the two girls. Shame burned in Rey's chest as she nodded solemnly, confirming that this had been her idea.

"This leaf isn't just the past, it's a whole future that never happened. There are billions and millions of unlived days for every day we live. An infinity. All the days that never came. And these are all my mum's."

Wisps of golden light reached out. Still in Clara's hand, the leave began to crumble at the tips as Grandfather fed.

The Doctor stood. "Well, come on then. Eat up. Are you full? I expect so because there's an awful lot of one, but there's an infinity of the other. And infinity's too much. Even for your appetite."

The leaf disappeared. As the last glittering fragments flew into the sun, it imploded, leaving them in darkness. Rey took a step towards Clara and then her legs refused to move any more. They felt like lead, like she was wearing shoes made of cement. "Sorry," she said in a soft voice, unable to force it any louder. "I know… I'm sorry…"

Clara took her hand.

The trip back was much more subdued that the trip to. Rey secluded herself in her room as soon as they got back. Clara said she forgave her, but that didn't make her feel any more forgiven. She thought she would cry, but the tears never came.

Irrationally, she didn't want to be alone. She forced herself to stay that way because she didn't deserve to be around others anymore. So she laid on her bed in the dark for a while, face down in the pillows.

A quiet knock at the door interrupted the moping sometime later. She didn't have the energy to deny the Doctor entrance. He slipped in, quiet as a mouse. The bed dipped as he sat by her prone body. For a moment she was afraid he'd talk, but he only reached out and gently, so gently, ran his fingers through her hair.

It was almost worse than if he had said something.

Later, he would tell her it wasn't her fault. He would say that Clara understood and didn't blame her. He'd tell her that Clara had her mother's ring back, and that it was a good day where the people were saved and no one died. Later, she would even start to believe him.

For now, they just stayed together in silence.


	13. 42

**AKA In Which A Snail Moves An Inch**

* * *

"Here." She handed Martha her mobile back, sliding the sonic into her coat pocket. "Universal Roaming. You should be able to get a signal anywhere and when. Unless something really goes wrong."

The Doctor, who was busy tinkering with the console, faltered for a second before finishing up quickly. Judging from his reaction, he'd clearly completely forgotten about upgrading Martha's phone. Really, he should have done it ages ago, and she was curious why he hadn't. According to the others, it was one of the first things he did.

Martha, too preoccupied with checking her phone, didn't notice his reaction. It was late enough in her tenure as a companion that she'd learned to expect chaos on their travels, but early enough that she was fascinated by everything. "No way! But it's… too mad! You're telling me I can call anyone, anywhere in space and time on my mobile?!"

"Long as you know the area code," he said with a smile. "Frequent Fliers' privilege. Go on. Try it."

"Calls can also get displaced in time," she warned just as the TARDIS jolted, throwing them all to the floor.

The monitor flashed red as the systems picked up a distress signal. The Doctor reached up with his foot to lock them onto the source. "Might be a bit of…" She gripped the under part of the console just in time. A second violent shake threw him and Martha across the floor again. She went down as well, banging her knees harshly against the console. "…turbulence. Sorry! Come on! Let's take a look!"

He helped her up before rushing towards the door. The cross look on Martha's face dissolved as she realized that they were already starting another adventure. She ran after him into the engine room of the ship they landed in. Rey was reminded of Satellite Five when she stepped out, only this was even worse. It was more like an industrial oven in the engine room. She couldn't imagine that temperatures this high were good for the machinery.

"Whoa! Now that is hot," the Doctor complained as Martha compared their current location to a sauna.

Rey examined a few pieces of equipment nearby and frowned. "The venting systems are at full blast trying to cool the ship." She pulled at the collar of her jacket, then decided to be done with it and shrugged it off. Rushing back inside the TARDIS, she hung it on one of the columns before hurrying back out in a thin long-sleeved shirt.

She kept her gloves on though, glad she'd chosen to wear thin ones this time. They were made of highly condensed shape-memory polymer, so they fit, well, like a glove. Plus, they were lightweight and flexible enough not to effect dexterity.

The Doctor stared at her, eerily still. "What is it?"

He jumped and spun around before walking briskly towards a heavy-looking door, cheeks flushing from the hot air. "N-nothing, er, um… Well! If you can't stand the heat…" It was much cooler once they exited out to Area 29. "Well, that's better."

Two men and a woman came running towards them, all harried and sweating profusely. "Oi! You two," one of the men, Riley, called out to them.

"Get out of there," the woman, Captain McDonnell, warned.

"Seal that door! Now!"

As if their lives depended on it, and it was very possible they did, the two men worked together to seal the door. Martha just barely managed to escape getting locked in with the TARDIS in Area 30, slipping out to stand beside Rey in the nick of time. Meanwhile, Captain McDonnell started questioning them. "Who are you? What are you doing on my ship?"

"Are you police," Riley asked.

How suspicious. Normally, the first question people who were in trouble would asked was if they were part of a rescue team, not law enforcement. They didn't always go hand in hand, and the way Riley had asked, partly hopeful but mostly fearful, instantly pinged her radar.

"Why would we be police," she shot back.

"We got your distress signal," Martha explained.

"If this is a ship, why can't I hear any engines," the Doctor added.

"It went dead four minutes ago."

"So maybe we should stop chatting and get to engineering," the other man, Scannell, said tersely. "Captain," he added belatedly, mostly for formality's sake.

When the computer announced a secure closure, everyone eyed each other in confusion. Rey had the distinct feeling that a giant clock with a timer was about to start counting down above their heads. She also imagined that nothing good would happen once they reached zero.

"The ship's gone mad," Scannell declared.

Another woman, Erina, ran down the corridors towards them, the doors slamming shut behind her. "Who activated secure closure? I nearly got locked in to Area 27." The last door banged shut with a loud echo, trapping them into Area 29. "Who are you?"

Martha cut in before the Doctor could reply, introducing the three of them distractedly. Her attention was quickly caught by the view out the small window built into the side of the ship. Light, likely from the nearby sun, shone through like a curtain of gold.

"Impact projection: 42 minutes."

"We'll get out of this," McDonnell said. "I promise."

"Doctor… Rey…"

"Forty-two minutes 'till what," he asked as the same time she asked, "What are we hitting."

"Doctor! Look." Martha's face was nearly pressed into the glass, and there was no mistaking the urgency in her voice. They both hurried over to her to see what had gotten her upset. Rey had been right that the golden light was from a sun, but she hadn't counted on how close the ship was to it. In fact, it was the only thing anywhere near them, which also meant it was the only thing they could possibly hit.

Confirming her train of thought, McDonnell announced gravely, "Forty-two minutes until we crash into the sun."

She exchanged a look with the Doctor, whose face was pinched with worry. A bead of sweat trickled down the back of her neck, and she wondered what would come first: the impact or getting boiled alive. Neither option seemed pleasant, though she supposed she'd prefer the former, if only for the experience.

All at once, he snapped out of his stillness, bounding over to McDonnell and grabbing her arm with urgency. "How many crew members on board?"

"Seven, including us."

"We transport cargo across the galaxy," Scannell explained. "Everything's automated. We just keep the ship…"

"Call the others," he ordered. "I'll get you out!"

Before anyone could stop him, he opened the door back to Area 30. A wave of heat knocked him back clear off his feet, sending him back a good couple of metres. Rey and Martha both rushed to him. If he were human, she was sure he'd have at least second degree burns all over his front, if not third. One of the others, dressed in protective gear and a breathing apparatus, quickly shut the door to prevent anything else from happening. She quickly pulled the breather off once it was safe and checked the gauges near the floor.

"But my ship's there!"

"In the vent chamber," Riley asked incredulously.

"It's lava," Scannell said.

"The temperature's going mad in there," Erina exclaimed. "Up 3000 degrees in ten seconds, and still rising."

"Channeling the air," Riley explained. "The closer we get to the sun, the hotter that room's gonna get."

"We're stuck here," Martha asked hotly.

"If we fix the engines we could steer the ship away," Rey suggested. The further away from the sun, the cooler the ship would get. And then maybe they could get to the TARDIS.

"Exactly! Simple! Engineering's down here, is it," the Doctor asked. He grabbed her hand and ran down the corridor, past a computer with the countdown displayed. So not over their heads like she had predicted, but close enough. "Blimey! Do you always leave things in such a mess?"

He was one to talk, but this time it was justified. The engine room was completely gutted. Wires, springs, and castings were torn apart and strewn all over. Everything was either steaming or burnt out or both.

"Oh, it's wrecked."

"Pretty efficiently," she agreed. Someone really wanted to make sure they couldn't access the controls.

"Where's Korwin," McDonnell asked, looking around while the Doctor and Rey examined a computer terminal that barely managed to survive the sabotage. "Has anyone heard from him or Ashton?"

"You mean someone did this on purpose," Martha asked as Scannell answered McDonnell in the negative. Rey nodded and handed over the sonic. In the background, the others got busy looking for their missing crew members and trying to salvage what they could of the machinery.

The Doctor slid on his back-rimmed glasses. Sometime in his future, he would tell a past her that he was testing out sonic spectacles. Maybe she was biased, but she preferred the screwdriver shape. "Oh! We're in the Torajji system! Lovely! You're a long way from home, Martha. Half a universe away."

"Yeah," she answered sarcastically. "Feels it."

Rey frowned at the readout. "You're still using energy scoops for fusion," she asked McDonnell. "Hasn't that been outlawed by now?"

Guiltily, the crew exchanged glances. "We're due to upgrade next docking," McDonnell lied before quickly changing the subject. "Scannell, engine report."

He walked over to a wall terminal to start the scan, but the computer received no response from the engines. "They're burnt out. The controls are wrecked. I can't get them back online."

The Doctor pulled his glasses off. "Oh come on! Auxiliary engines! Every craft's got auxiliaries!"

McDonnell shook her head. "We don't have access from here. The auxiliary controls are in the front of the ship."

"Yeah, with 29 password sealed doors between us and them," Scannell unhelpfully added. "You'll never get there in time."

"Can't you override the doors," Martha asked.

"No. Sealed closure means what it says. They're all deadlock sealed." Which meant the sonic couldn't help either. "We've got no engines, no time, no chance."

"We don't if you keep on like that," Rey mumbled, feeling the beginnings of a headache start to form again. "Giving up before you try is poor form."

Scannell scowled. "Oh, don't tell me. You're an optimist, aren't you?"

"I'm a realist," she corrected calmly, tying her hair up. She didn't like the way it exposed her neck—the shirt she was wearing had a V-neck collar that ended a little low—but the heat was making her sweat, and her sweat was making her hair stick uncomfortable to her skin. "And right now, realistically, we have a chance if we can get to the auxiliary engines."

The Doctor readily agreed. He looked away from her quickly, skin flushing from the heat and addressed McDonnell. "Who's got the door passwords?"

"They're randomly generated," Riley answered. "Reckon I know most of 'em. Sorry. Riley Vashti."

"Then what're you waiting for Riley Vashti, get on it."

"Well, it's a two-person job." He retrieved a giant magnetic clamp and a heavy backpack. "One, it takes to answer the questions, and the other to carry this. The oldest and cheapest security system around, eh captain?"

"Reliable and simple, just like you, eh Riley," McDonnell shot back, trying to find some comfort in the easy camaraderie.

"Try and be helpful, get abuse. Nice!"

Martha took the equipment from him. "I'll help you. Make myself useful."

"I'll join as well," Rey volunteered, just in case. She wanted to be there if anything happened to Martha, or if they came across any other attempts at sabotage.

"It's remotely controlled by computer panel," Riley explained. "That's why it needs two."

The Doctor squeezed her hand gently. "I'll look after Martha," she assured him, noting the worry on his face. It was carefully hidden from the others, masked by a false calm.

"Be careful," he urged her.

She looked at him carefully. For once, he was the one refusing to meet her gaze. Strange. Though she hardly ever looked him in the eye, the Doctor always faced her directly. Had something happened since the last time he saw her?

"I'll see you soon," she said, giving his hand a final squeeze before hurrying to follow Martha and Riley out. Thirty-four minutes, thirty seconds, and counting; they needed to work fast.

It took them almost a full two minutes to get to their first door. Riley started typing into the keypad, initiating the connection between the door's security system and the equipment. Both girls were equally impatient as he worked, but Rey hid it better than Martha. The stress was getting to all of them. Especially since, both helpfully and unhelpfully, the computer kept reciting the integrity of the heat field and how long they had until impact.

"Hurry up, will you?"

"Alright. Fix the clamp on!" Working together, they lifted it. As large as it looked, it was even heavier. The magnetics that would keep it attached to the door had failed some years ago, so they had to manually hold it in place while the systems synced up.

"What are you typing," Martha asked, awkwardly trying to look over her shoulder.

"Each door's trip code is the answer to a random question set by the crew. Nine tours back we got drunk and thought 'em up. Reckoning was if we're hijacked, we're the only ones who know all the answers."

"So you type the right answer…"

Riley tapped the backpack. "This sends an unlock pulse to the clamp. But we only get one chance per door. Get it wrong, the whole system freezes."

"Let's hope you're not creative drunks, then," Rey said.

Riley shifted on his feet, a little excited at the challenge. He was an adrenaline junkie if she ever saw one, which put him in good company. Between her, Martha, and the Doctor, they could start a club.

The first question appeared on the readout screen. "Okay. Date of SS Pentallian's first flight? That's alright!" He typed in the answer and yelled "Go!"

She pressed the trigger on the clamp. It let out a few beeps and the lights on the top changed from red to green as the door opened. "Yes," Martha cheered.

"Only twenty-eight more to go," Riley yelled as they ran for the next door.

They were setting up the clamp when the Doctor's voice came out over the intercom. "Rey? Martha? How're you doing?"

"We're at the door to Area 28."

"You've gotta move faster!"

"We're going our best," Martha argued back.

"Find the next number in the sequence: 313, 331, 367…" Riley read out loud. "What?"

"You said the crew knew all the answers," Martha said worriedly as Rey's mind got to work.

"The crew's changed since we set the questions."

"You're joking…"

"379," she told them.

Martha's head jerked back so she could look at her. "What?"

"The answer is 379. It's a sequence of happy primes."

"Happy what?"

"Are you sure," Riley asked. "We only get once chance!"

She grit her teeth, resisting the urge to groan. "A happy number is any positive integer that reduces to one when you take the sum of the square of the digits. Any number where this doesn't apply is unhappy. Happy primes are numbers that are both happy and prime. End of explanation." Both her companions stared at her, Martha in surprise and Riley in apprehension.

"Just type it in," the Doctor yelled over the intercom at the same time Martha yelled it over her shoulder. "Talk about dumbing down," he continued. "Don't they teach recreational mathematics anymore?"

"'Recreational mathematics,'" Martha mouthed silently as Riley inputted the answer. She was still looking at Rey curiously.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," she said quickly. "Just, I don't think I've ever heard you say that much at once." She grinned, trying to convey that she didn't mean it as an insult. "How'd you know that stuff on happy primes? I mean, I know you like chemistry…"

She shrugged, shifting as the system accepted the correct answer and the door opened. "We're through," Martha reported back.

"Keep moving. Fast as you can," the Doctor urged them. Then, quieter and softer, added, that they should be careful. "There may be something else on board this ship."

"Anytime you wanna unnerve me, feel free," Martha shot back.

"Well do, thanks." The intercom switched off as the computer reported thirty minutes and fifty seconds left until impact.

Despite the Doctor's ominous warning, they made it to the next door without any problems. "I read," Rey said after a beat as they set up again. Practice was making them faster but she still worried they wouldn't have enough time. "There's not much else to do at the hospital. Or the Institute."

"Must be some library…"

"Have to see the TARDIS's?"

Martha shook her head.

"I'll show you when we get back. It's my second favorite room." She loved it even more than her own bedroom. If she thought about it, she'd probably fallen asleep in the library more times than in her bed. The chairs were supernaturally comfortable, and the TARDIS made sure to cushion her shaking more than usual.

Finally, Martha's smile lost its fearful edge. "I can't believe our lives depend on some stupid pub quiz! Is that the next one?"

Riley buried his face in his hand. "Oh, this is a nightmare! Classical music. Who had the most pre-download number ones, Elvis Presley or the Beatles?" He mangled both names. "How're we supposed to know that?"

They both looked to Rey. "Don't look at me. I just told you there was nothing to do at the hospital. That includes listening to music." Actual music wasn't allowed unless one of the doctors decided to play something during an appointment. It happened about as often as you'd think, meaning almost never. When she was younger, she and the other patient in the ward used to make up songs to sing when they were bored or after a particularly intense therapy session. To her knowledge, she had never heard a single song from either artist.

"Doctor," Martha asked over the intercom.

"What is it now?" He sounded distracted.

"Who had the most number ones, Elvis or the Beatles? That's pre-download."

"Elvis. No! The Beatles! No! Wait! Um… um… Argh! What was that remix? Um... I don't know! I am a bit busy!"

"Fine, I'll ask someone else!" Martha closed the connection. "Only who?"

"We can always ask your mother." Even if Francine didn't know the answer, she could look it up. Martha gave her a confused look. "Universal Roaming," Rey reminded her.

"Right!" She whipped out her phone, dialing her mother's number. "Mum? It's me, it's Martha. Wow!"

Between how close they were standing—which made Rey tense, but not as much as she expected—and her excellent hearing, she could listen in on both sides of the conversation. She was finally getting used to Martha. It took longer than she liked; not that Martha was unlikeable. The problem was all Rey and her stupid inability to not be apprehensive around medical professionals.

Francine sounded a bit put-off as she asked where her daughter was. "Don't you check your messages? I've been calling you."

"Actually, bit busy. Need you to do something for me."

"No. Listen to me. We have to talk about this Doctor, and his— that girl of his— Rey."

"Mum!" Martha mouthed a silent apology to the other girl. "Please not now! I need you to look something up on the internet!"

"Do it yourself," Francine said petulantly. "You've got a computer."

"Oh just do it will you!" As soon as the words were out of her mouth she looked just as stunned as Rey and Riley. Laughing tersely, she tried to play it off. "Please."

"When did you get so rude? I'll tell you when. Ever since you met that man and that girl."

She had yet to meet Francine in person, and now she wasn't sure she wanted to. It must have been a horrid experience to have earned both her and the Doctor such terrible regard. It was sort of the same with Rose's mum. While Jackie tended to aim most of her bitterness—and Rey still hadn't found out why she was so bitter in the first place—at the Doctor, she sometimes ended up getting caught in the crossfire. So far, it seemed like Brian was the exception when it came to the parents of companions.

Well, he was a Pond, even if only because Rory married into the family. Adventure was in his blood.

"I need to know who had more number ones: the Beatles or Elvis?"

"Hang on. The mouse is unplugged." Martha held the mobile away for a moment and let out a half-scream, half-growl of frustration. "Okay. I'm on. What is this? Pub quiz?"

"Yeah," she lied, "a pub quiz."

"Using your mobile is cheating," Francine chided.

"Have you found it?!"

"There's over four hundred thousand results. Give me a minute."

"Deep breaths," Rey advised Martha softly. The last thing they needed was Francine getting distracted or angry and refusing to help.

Riley shot them a look of impatience. "Impact in 28.50," the computer announced.

Finally, Francine came upon the answer. Martha had taken a series of deep breaths and was only all the more tense for it. She was listening so intently that she nearly missed the answer. "What?! Really? Elvis," she told Riley.

The door quickly opened and off they went running again towards the next one.

"Mum, you're a star!"

Rey could no longer hear Francine's response, but that didn't very much matter since seconds later, a woman screamed over the intercom. They stopped in their tracks, and Martha quickly hung up the phone. Rey rushed to a nearby communications station, feeling like her heart was caught in her throat. "Doctor, what happened? Who screamed?"

"Concentrate on those doors," he yelled back, breath coming out in pants like he was running. "You've gotta keep moving forward!"

Unhappy with his lack of an answer but knowing he was right, she obliged, leading the way to the next door. They cleared that one, and the next nine with little difficulty between the three of them. The only really challenging question being a theology one on the hierarchy of hell in Dante's Divine Comedy, and the answer had to be given in the original Italian.

Martha checked in with the Doctor again at Area 17. He only encouraged them to keep working. At the next door, the terminal began to fritz. "Come on!" Riley smacked it. "Everything on this ship is so cheap!"

A loud bang echoed from down another corridor. There was no response when Riley asked who was there, only more banging. Against Rey's better judgment, they put down the equipment to see if it was one of the missing crew who needed help. There was a lot of smoke of the thick, black variety. A humanoid figure could barely be made out through it.

"Is that Korwin," Martha asked quietly.

"No, wait a minute…" The man who walked towards them wore a bulky red helmet that vaguely resembled the sort of protective mask welders used. "Oh, Aston, what're you doing? Well, if you wanna help…"

"Burn with me! Burn with me!" Ashton's hand came up to lift the eye shield up. His distorted voice barely sounded human, weighed by a deep growl that hurt Rey's head just listening to it.

"Move!" Martha slapped the button to open the nearest door, squeezing through the narrow gap. "Come on!"

Rey dashed after her, Riley on her heels. The room they entered was small, hardly bigger than a closet. She typed a command into the keypad to seal the doors, the others giving a sigh of relief as the entrance closed before Ashton could get through. They could still see him through the porthole and hear him pound on the door. Riley came up to her and entered another combination in the keypad, opening a hatch next to them that lead to an escape pod.

"What is happening on this ship?!"

"Never mind that," Martha said dismissively. "Where are we?"

"Airlock sealed," the computer stated. "Jettison escape pod."

"That doesn't mean us," she asked, fear manifesting as anger.

Rey swiftly moved out of the way as Riley lunged for the keypad, going to the communication unit instead.

"Pod jettison initiated."

"Doctor! We're stuck in an escape pod off the Area 17 airlock," Martha shouted into the receiver. "One of the crew's trying to jettison us! You've gotta help us!"

"Can you stop it," Rey asked Riley, half tempted to give it a try herself. But he was more familiar with the systems, and had a better chance at getting them out. Or the opposite, rather.

"Jettison held."

They all let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you," Riley said to no one in particular.

"Jettison reactivated."

Martha screamed and hit the door, willing Ashton to leave and for it to open. Riley was at the keypad again, typing frantically. And muttering to himself. "Geovinsci sequence. This'll get him."

Their pod held its position, jettison sequence canceled once more. "You're pretty good on your feet," she told Riley. He grinned wildly at her in response.

The fragile relief was broken when, just like last time, the jettison reactivated. A series of klaxons began to sound, and the computer let out a warning.

Rey pressed her face up close to the porthole, feeling the insane heat from the reinforced glass. It was hotter than it should have been, even given the boiling temperatures of the ship in general. She hazarded a guess that Ashton, or his body at least, was emitting some sort of radiation to heat it up. Most likely solar—the glimpse of light she'd caught sight up beneath his eye shield had resembled sunlight.

"He's smashed the circuit," Riley said hopelessly. "I can't stop it. I can't stop it!"

"Airlock sealed."

Martha was still trying to open the doors from the inside, ignoring the computer as it announced the decompression was complete. The pod was about to be released. "Doctor…" Rey caught sight of him through the window, running towards them. He was frantic; scared even as he shouted something she couldn't hear. The angle was horrible for reading lips, but she could guess what he was saying.

Resigned, Riley slumped against the wall. "Martha, it's too late." She ignored him, continuing to shout and bang at the door. The pod disengaged, and she watched as they drifted further and further away.

"Coward," Martha said softly, finally ceasing her futile attempts to get out. The temperature was skyrocketing by the second as they drifted closer to the sun. From this distance, there was no way they would have been able to fight its gravitational pull in their tiny escape pod even if they did have coordinates or working thrusters to steer. Martha sat back, as did Rey. The three of them gazed silently out of the porthole.

"The wonderful world of space travel," Riley said after a beat. "The prettier it looks, the more likely it is to kill you."

"The Doctor will save us," Rey said quietly but firmly. The longer they drifted, the worse she felt. Heat sapped her strength and made her head ache. She felt nauseous, like someone had their hand inside her guts and was scooping them out to play with. "He can remagnatize us."

Riley shook his head. "Nah. It's too late. Our heat shields will pack in any minute, then we go into freefall. We'll fall into the sun way before he has a chance to do anything."

"You don't know the Doctor," Martha protested. "I believe in him too."

"Then you're lucky. I've never found anyone worth believing in."

"No girlfriend? Boyfriend?"

"The job doesn't lend itself to stable relationships."

Rey snorted softly. "What about family?"

"My dad's dead. And I haven't seen my mum in… six years. She didn't want me to sign up for cargo tours. Things were said, and since then… all silent. She wanted to hold onto me, I know that. She's stubborn!"

"Yeah well, that's family," Martha said, her voice shaking as she remembered her own.

"What about you two," Riley asked.

Rey shrugged. Family was one of the many categories where she was in the deficit if they were strictly speaking in the biological sense. She didn't even know who her parents were, only that they must not have wanted her since they never visited. Not one call or one letter, not even a memory. All she had was the Madame, who oversaw her treatment, and she wasn't family in any sense of the word.

She was more okay with that nowadays than she ever thought she'd be. Because even though she didn't have parents, she wasn't alone now. Not anymore.

"I've got the full works. Mum, Dad. Dad's girlfriend. Brother, sister. No silence there. So much noise. Oh God!" Martha began to cry as the realization hit her. "They'll never know! I… I'll just have disappeared. And they'll always be waiting."

"You should call them," Rey told her. She did her best not to listen in on the conversation, wanting to give Martha what little privacy there was in such a cramped space. Instead, she closed her eyes, pushed past the ache in her head, and revisited her memory of the clearing by the river. If family wasn't just the people who shared your DNA, then she had the Doctor. And through him she had Rory, Amy, Donna, and the others, Martha included. She had a home in the TARDIS and fond memories of things other than books.

Something broke in her chest at the thought of never seeing them again. She wasn't giving up on the Doctor, but she knew better than anyone that he couldn't save everyone. Her throat tightened, and the image she held in her head rippled like a reflection upon water. A sense of loss, so strong it would've knocked her off her feet if she wasn't already sitting, hit her with such an overwhelming force. She didn't even notice when Martha tearfully finished her phone call until she felt the other girl shift beside her to give Riley a hug.

It didn't make sense. And now that she thought about it, her nausea didn't either. They crowded at the front of the pod, the back too hot to be bearable from the sun.

The sun…

She was stretching, muscles straining. The answer was just beyond the reach of her fingertips. Like a jolt knocking to towards her, it all snapped into place. Then she realized that the jolt hadn't just been in her mind. "We're being pulled back," she noted, tension finally easing a little.

Martha laughed sharply. "We told you! It's the Doctor!"

The remagnetization quickly drew the pod back into the airlock. Rey shot out the second it docked, not even waiting for the doors to open all the way. The Doctor was on his knees in the corridor just outside, dressed in the same orange suit from the sanctuary base, only without the helmet.

"The sun is…" The words she had been hurrying to say to him died in her mouth. It didn't take a genius to realize that something was terribly wrong.

Quickly but carefully, she turned him on his back. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut, and he writhed in pain. Martha came rushing over to them, helping him sit up.

When he opened his eyes, golden red light came pouring out just like with Ashton. "Stay away from me!" He squeezed his eyes shut again fought to get away, but couldn't for all the pain he was in. Martha quickly released him and backed up. Rey took a step back but stayed close, too worried to go far. He was an idiot if he thought she was just going to leave him like this.

McDonnell joined them from the other direction. "What's happened?"

"It's your fault, Captain McDonnell," he screamed at her.

Concern became shock, which then quickly tightened back into stressed composure. "Riley! Get down to Area 10 and help Scannell with the doors," she ordered. "Go!"

He took off and Rey, unable to help it, went back to the Doctor's side. He was burning up, and shaking badly. Their hands brushed clumsily as she reached for him the same time that he reached blindly for her. When he found his grip, he held on for dear life.

"You mined that sun! Stripped its surface for cheap fuel! You should have scanned for life!"

"I don't understand," McDonnell said in a shaky voice.

"Doctor, what are you talking about," Martha asked. "Rey, what's he saying?"

"That sun is alive." She wanted to say something to the Doctor, but there weren't any words that could soothe his ache. All she could do was let him hold her hand.

"They scooped out its heart, used it for fuel, and now it's screaming!"

"What do you mean," McDonnell demanded to know. "How can a sun be alive? Why're you saying that?!"

"Because it's living in me."

"Oh my god…"

"Humans," he spat, letting out a terrible scream full of pain. "You grab whatever's nearest and bleed it dry! You should have scanned!"

His hold on her was growing painful, but she ignored it and studied him. Elevated heart rate, rapid breathing, flushed skin and a dangerously high body temperature—if he didn't get help soon, not even the Doctor's Time Lord biology would be able to withstand the force of the sun for much longer.

"It takes too long," McDonnell shouted, finally admitting to the crime. "We'd be caught! Fusion scoops are illegal!"

"You've got to freeze me, quickly!"

"What?!" Martha rushed back to them, snapped out of her horror and shock.

"Stasis chamber," Rey realized. They had those by this era. It would buy them time. "We need to get you to Med-Bay."

Together, she and Martha helped him on his feet. Rey grunted quietly under the strain. Given their difference in stature, it was awkward to have her support the Doctor's weight. He was leaning down heavily on her side, and they nearly all fell over with their first step for how unbalanced they were.

The Doctor, the sun, herself—they were all jumbled up in her head, and all of them were screaming to be left alone. She clamped down on the feeling, shoving it into a box and burying it. Everyone's panic was so strong, so thick, that she could practically _taste_ it in the air. She was being pulled apart in too many directions. A bit to the frantic Scannell and Riley; a bit to the guilty McDonnell; a bit to the fretting Martha, and a bit to the Doctor and the sun—angry, hurt, and lashing out.

"You gotta keep me… below minus 200. Freeze it out of me!" He screamed again, nearly falling out of their grasp. Gritting her teeth, Rey forced herself to concentrate. There wasn't any time to waste. He was in bad shape, and they were quickly falling to the point where even the engines wouldn't be able to pull them away from the sun's gravitational field.

But she'd never heard him sound so scared. His fear echoed inside her, feeding her own. As much as she tried not to, as much as she didn't want to, all she could do was think about what would happen if they were too late or this didn't work or they couldn't separate the sun from him.

"It'll use me to kill you if you don't! The closer we get to the sun, the stronger it gets!"

"Help us," she snapped the McDonnell, shoving her doubts away.

She rushed over, taking Rey's place in supporting the Doctor. Rey ran ahead, opening the doors as they half carried, half dragged the Doctor to the medical bay.

"Impact in 7.30," the computer announced.

At least their destination was close by instead of, say, on the other side of the ship. They all but dropped the Doctor on top of the bed of the stasis chamber, a large machine that vaguely resembled a MRI. She pulled out the manual, a large bound book about four inches thick.

"Rey, where are you?!" The Doctor reached out blindly.

Motioning for Martha to flip through it instead, she abandoned the instructions and went to his side. "I can do it," Martha muttered to herself, to which Rey had no doubt. There wasn't much in the universe that could stop Martha Jones when she put her mind to something.

"I'm here," she told the Doctor. Without thinking, she took his hand, holding on tightly. "You're going to be fine."

"Minus 200, yeah," Martha called out.

"No, you don't know how this equipment works," McDonnell protested. "You'll kill him! Nobody can survive those temperatures!"

"He's not human. If he says he can survive, then he can."

"Let me help you then!"

"You've done enough damage," Martha snapped, making no attempt to hide her contempt.

Rey was torn between helping her and staying with the Doctor. Logically, she knew what she should've been doing. She should've been figuring the machine out, thinking of some way to get the sun to let the Doctor go, finding a way to save the ship. But she couldn't bring herself to let go of his hand. Even though he was burning hot and his grip painfully tight, she couldn't let go of the proof that he was still alive.

"Ten seconds," he bit out. "That's all I'll be able to take. No more!" He screamed again and shouted her name. Lurching up, he nearly fell out of the cot as he leaned over the side and retched.

She didn't hesitate before reaching over and rubbing his other arm in what she hoped was a soothing manner. Circles. The Doctor rubbing circles into her wrist or the back of her hand always made her feel better.

"It's burning me up. I can't control it. If you don't get rid of it…" His voice changed, gaining that same dark, barely human edge that Ashton had spoken with. "I could kill you. I could kill you all."

"Don't say that!" He was trying to get her to leave again, just like on Akhaten, or at the sanctuary base. He always tried to send her away when things were dangerous, and she was sick of it.

He held on tightly to her hand with both of his, shaking so hard he was almost convulsing. "I'm scared," he admitted, sounding almost like a child. It tore her heart to pieces listening to him talk like that. "I'm so scared!"

Mentally, she banged her head against the wall. What did normal people say in a situation like this? She didn't know any words of particular comfort or consolation—that wasn't was she did. She just felt things. She just saw and felt. She never had to sympathize before because she always empathized.

The freezing process would hurt. More than just hurt, it would be excruciating. She had a feeling that the Doctor's fear wasn't entirely his own. Most of it definitely was, but part of it, maybe the spark that lit his flame of fear ablaze, was coming from the sun. As angry and sad as it was, it was also scared. Scared of more pain. Scared of dying alone.

"Just hold on," she told him. "That's all you have to do: just hold on and don't let go. Martha and I… we're going to save you, so until then just keep holding on."

"There's something… I need to tell you something! Before I… If I'm going to regenerate then—"

Gently, she shushed him, brushing his hair, plastered on his forehead from sweat, away. "Tell me after." She glanced at Martha, getting a nod in return. "Are you ready?"

"No!"

Martha pushed down a lever that recalled the cot back into the stasis chamber. Rey held on until she was forced to let go or stick her hands in and freeze herself. This was the most terrible experience of her life, and she wasn't even the one going through it. The Doctor screamed the entire time. A bright white light bathed him as frost rapidly began to accumulate on his skin.

"Heat shields failing. At five percent."

She glanced at the temperature read out. It hit minus 70, then shut off by itself. "No," the Doctor shouted through whimpers of pain and fear. "Rey! Martha, you can't stop it! Not yet!"

"What's happened?!"

"Someone in engineering must've cut the power," she realized. "Who's down there?"

"Leave it to me." McDonnell ran from the room.

"Impact in 4.47."

The Doctor screamed again. The ice crystals that had formed started to melt as the sun fought to take him over. Water pooled on the sides of the cot. Martha called to her, trying to get the stasis chamber to work again.

Rey did the calculations in her head. Even if McDonnell could get to engineering in time, she still had to deal with whoever was down there. Factoring in the amount of time it would take the machine to recalibrate, and there was no way she was make it in time.

If only there was a way to purge the sun from the ship, to reset the entire system…

"Martha!" The other woman was instantly by her side. "Stay with him."

"But where are you going?"

"I have an idea! I need to get to the front of the ship and vent the engines. The sun particles are in the fuel—we have to give back what they took."

"But Rey—"

She was already on her way out, afraid that if she lingered for too long she wouldn't be able to bring herself to leave. "Stay with him," she called over her shoulder. "Please. I have to go."

"Rey!" The Doctor cried out. Martha had a comforting hand on his leg, rubbing soothingly. Even from how far she was, Rey could still see his shaking.

"I'll see you soon," she assured him. "I promise. I always come back, don't I?"

"Impact in 4.08."

As fast as she could, she sprinted through the corridors. The detour to the med-center had brought them closer to where they began back in Area 29. Area 1 was a long ways away, and she pushed herself to get there just a second faster.

"Survival element protection. Zero percent."

She was just passing through Area 4 when the Doctor's voice called out to her through the intercom. She stumbled to a halt, nearly tripping over her feet to get to the nearest intercom.

"Doctor? What happened to Martha?"

"I can't fight it. Give it back or… burn with me. Burn with me, Rey!"

She ran.

Ninety seconds left; she was confident Martha was still alive. She was Martha Jones; there was no way she would die here. The Doctor had mostly likely just knocked her out. Even half-possessed he wouldn't hurt her.

"Impact in 1.21."

He screamed and it sounded like a roar. It felt like the entire ship was shaking as it echoed over the comms.

"Got it!" Riley yelped as the final door opened. Rey charged into Area 1 through the doors before they had a chance to open fully, surprising both Riley and Scannell who hadn't seen her coming.

"Whoa!"

She almost crashed into the back wall where all the dials were. Without missing a beat, she started turning them to release the fuel. "We need to vent the engines now."

"What?"

She felt both men's eyes on her back but didn't stop her hands. "The sun particles are in the fuel. We need to dump it back, so don't just stand there. Help me!"

They startled and jumped into motion, helping with the dials. Once the final one had been turned, Riley reached for a knob labeled "Fuel Dispersal" and turned it all the way to the right. The ship lurched, throwing Rey up against the wall before flinging her backwards.

She grabbed the nearby railing, eyes fixed on the readouts that showed the fuel being released. For the first time in her life, she prayed. She prayed to anyone or anything willing to listen that this would work, that Martha was okay, that the Doctor would be alright. Her heart pounded in her chest with such viciousness she thought it might burst out.

And then it hit her why she was so panicked. The world came to a screeching standstill as a thousand realizations hit her in a single second, and all of them screamed the same conclusion.

She didn't just care about the Doctor. He wasn't just family. She had feelings for him.

Romantic feelings.

Memories flashed before her eyes. Who was it that had said hindsight was 20/20? So many things made sense now.

The shock was so absolute she barely felt it when a final, violent shake ripped her away from the railing and sent skidding her across the floor. Scannell shouted something. The countdown reached zero. The computer announced that impact had been averted.

It felt like sirens were still ringing in her ears. Or was that the silence? As the two men rejoiced in the good news, Rey's world was crashing down around her. How could she have feelings for the Doctor? Since when? What did that even mean? The only "love" she had ever known were from her books, and even those didn't always make sense to her.

No. She didn't love him. She couldn't. Maybe she was mistaking admiration and gratitude for romantic attraction. He was the one who saved her, after all. He saved her from a life stuck in a hospital room, and since then he'd saved her more times than she could count.

She'd thought about it before—the suspension-bridge effect.

She couldn't have feelings for him. He was the Doctor, and she was just some girl too wrong to be allowed out in the real world. She was sick, and she was weird and creepy and her own parents didn't want her so how could she expect someone she had no relation to, who had no social obligation to her, to do so? No, it had to have been a mistake. She just held a minor infatuation, she was just mistakenly fixating on him.

These feelings weren't love. Not real love.

Rey forced her mind to stop. The memories froze like they were snowflakes, suspended in air. It wasn't an inappropriate comparison. She might've been able to parse out a dozen different intricacies up close, but from afar, everything looked the same. That was all she had to do: look from afar. Her memories weren't ruined so long as she didn't examine them up close. So long as she pretended not to notice this new realization, everything would be fine.

And just like snowflakes, she hoped her insignificant feelings would quickly melt and evaporate, leaving no trace behind.

She pushed herself up and forced her shaking legs to keep running. The ship was saved, but she still didn't know if it was in time. The trip back to the medical bay seemed to take ages. When she finally arrived, the Doctor was beside a just waking Martha. Both looked a little worse for wear, and she didn't even want to know how she matched up to them. Quietly, she joined their huddle, close enough to be near them, but far enough that her shot nerves could finally have a break.

The Doctor and Martha pulled each other into a tight embrace, him silently apologizing and her silently forgiving him. Wordlessly, he reached over and held Rey's still gloved hand. Though lacking the unnatural heat from the sun, it was still warm like a hearth.

Good. Heat only made snow melt faster.

Eventually, they picked themselves up and called the surviving crew to meet them back in Area 30. It was only Scannell and Riley left, McDonnell having sacrificed herself to buy them that last bit of extra time. The ship, while running on fumes, had enough power to divert them out of the danger zone and away from the sun's orbit.

"This is never your ship," Scannell gasped, amazed at how the TARDIS managed to survive the intense heat intact without a scratch.

"Compact! Eh! And another good word, robust! Barely a scorch mark on her."

"You forgot sexy," Rey said by rote, reminding him of his private nickname for her and causing the tips of his ears turned red.

Martha snickered, then straightened up. "We can't just leave them drifting with no fuel."

"We've sent out an official mayday," Riley told her with a sad smile. "The authorities will pick us up soon enough."

"Though how we explain what happened…"

"Just tell them," the Doctor urged, opening the door to the TARDIS. "That sun needs care and protection, just like any other living thing."

Scannell nodded, both he and Riley resigned but determined.

Rey entered the TARDIS after the Doctor, leaving Martha to say her goodbyes. She had grown fond of Riley, as evident of the slightly lopsided grin she wore when she finally joined them in the console room. And her reddened lips.

"So! Didn't really need you in the end, did we," she joked. Rather than play along, the Doctor remained mournful. Rey herself was milling a little further away than usual. She resolved not to act differently, but she needed some time to build her walls back up.

"Sorry. How'er you doing?"

At the talk of feelings, he suddenly put on the mask of his usual cheerful self. "Now! What do you say? Ice skating on the mineral lakes of Cuhlhan? Fancy it?"

"Whatever you like," Martha replied unenthusiastically, moving to lean against the railing.

Rey gave him a pointed look, shifting her eyes very obviously over to Martha. He winced, then pulled a TARDIS key out of his pocket. "By the way, you'll be needing this."

"Really?!" All trace of her former petulance was gone.

"Frequent Flier's Privilege," Rey told her. She soon retired to her room, citing a long day and a desire to clean up. As she left, Martha made a third call to her mother.

Snowflakes, she reminded herself. Fragile. Easily brushed off. Tiny things that didn't make much of a difference.

What a shame she failed to recognize that even fragile snow could pile up, and that frost had a way of lingering.

* * *

 **Let's be real: did any of you actually expect anything but the slowest burn to ever slowburn? Still, this is a big step for Rey, even if it is a bit of a one step forward, half step back type of situation...**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Feel free to drop a review or come scream at me over at tumblr!**


	14. The Vampires of Venice

**AKA In Which Fish Are Worse Than Leeches**

* * *

Rey landed on her feet in the middle of the TARDIS console room with the distinct feeling that she had missed something. The Doctor sat in the harness seat on the lower level, doing some welding work. Amy paced nervously on the higher floor, and Rory was caught between shock and anger. It must've been early for them because Amy jumped back and yelped when she appeared. She was still drenched from the swamp she'd been dragged into just moments ago.

Rory stared at her, amazed that a girl had just appeared out of thin air in front of him. Very early days, then.

"Rey!"

The Doctor dropped what he was doing and bounded up the stairs to greet her. She went to wave at him, then cut the action short and brought her hand up to cover her nose and mouth as she sneezed. It felt colder in the TARDIS than usual, and her damp clothes weren't helping any.

Something warm was draped over her shoulders. She looked up to see the Doctor sans jacket, then looked down to the see it on her instead.

"Thank you."

He beamed.

Amy huffed and crossed her arms.

"Right, where were we? Oh! The life out there, it dazzles. I mean, it blinds you to the things that are important. I've seen it devour relationships and plans…" Something sparked beneath the console. He waved it off. "Ohhh! It's meant to do that… because for one person to have seen all that, to taste the glory and then go back, it _will_ tear your apart. So… I'm sending you somewhere. Together."

"Whoa! What, like a date?"

He nodded. "Anywhere you want, anytime you want. One condition—it has to be amazing. The Moulin Rouge in 1890! The first Olympic Games! Not the Titanic—that was a disaster both times. Think of it as a wedding present, because, frankly, it's either this or tokens."

"Are you okay," Rey asked Rory. He had moved passed shock but was still looking a bit stunned.

"It's a lot to take in, isn't it," the Doctor asked. "Tiny box, huge room inside. What's that about? Let me explain."

"It's another dimension," Rory stated plainly.

"It's basically another dimen… What?"

"After Prisoner Zero—" he paid no mind to the Doctor's attempts to get him to stop— "I've been reading up on all the latest scientific theories: FTL travel, parallel universes."

Prisoner Zero… that sounded vaguely familiar. Her memory for the spoken word wasn't as sharp as it was for the written, but she was fairly sure she had heard that name before. Maybe the Doctor had let it slip in passing? That was probably it.

"I like the bit when someone says, 'it's bigger on the inside!' I always look forward to that." He pouted.

"So this date," Amy said, getting them back on topic. "I'm kind of done with running down corridors. What do you think, Rory?"

"How about somewhere… romantic?"

Rey went to change while the Doctor set the TARDIS in motion, coming out in a fresh pair of jeans, a thin sweater worn over a thermal shirt, and her signature gloves. She handed the Doctor back his coat, noting that he had landed them in the middle of a busy marketplace. He opened the doors for her, bowing with an exaggerated flourish as if she were some sort of nobility. She rolled her eyes at him but played along.

"Venice," he exclaimed to Amy and Rory, who were a bit too busy at looking around in amazement to pay him much attention. "Venezia! La Serenissima! Impossible city. Preposterous city!"

"It was founded by refugees running from Attila the Hun and started out as a small conglomeration of wooden huts in the marsh before becoming one of the most powerful cities in the world," Rey explained, taking in the sights.

"Constantly being invaded, constantly flooding… constantly… Just beautiful! Oh, you gotta love Venice. And so many people did. Byron, Napoleon, Cassanova." He made a face and checked his watch. "That's alright. Casanova doesn't get born for 145 years."

"What a shame," she said genuinely. Reputation aside, he had been fascinating to talk to. Yes, he flirted the way some people breathed, but that wasn't anything new after Jack. Rey was fine with flirting so long as it was harmless. When people started getting mad that they weren't being reciprocated, that was when there was a problem.

"Don't want to run into him. I owe him a chicken," the Doctor said with more distaste than expected.

"You owe Casanova a chicken," Rory asked dubiously.

"Long story. We had a bet."

And official in black robes stopped them, zeroing in on the Doctor as the authority figure of the group. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Papers, if you please. Proof of residency, current bill of medical inspection."

He patted his coat for the psychic paper. Really, by now he should've known better by now. What did he expect when he actually gave her his coat? Rey slipped it out of the back pocket of her jeans and handed it to him. He checked it briefly, then held it up for the official. "There you go, fella. All to your satisfaction, I think you'll find."

The official bowed deeply. "I am so sorry, Your Holiness. I didn't realize."

"No worries. You were just doing your job."

"What is your job," she asked.

The official bowed to her as well, looking down at the ground rather than at her face. "Checking for aliens, My Lady Marquise. Visitors from foreign lands what might bring the plague with them."

"Oh, that's nice. See where you bring me?" Amy slapped the Doctor's arm. "The plague!"

"Don't worry, Viscountess." The official bowed for a third time. "No, we're under quarantine here, no one comes in, no one goes out, and all because of the grace and wisdom of our patron, Signora Rosanna Calvierri." He pointed to the crest on the box he was carrying.

The Black Plague had reached its peak in Europe in the years 1346-1353. By 1580 it should have died out already. Rey mentioned that last part to the official, who vehemently shook his head. "Not out there. No, Signora Calvierri has seen it with her own eyes. Streets are piled high with bodies, she said."

"Did she now," the Doctor asked curiously.

Rory reached for the psychic paper as the office left them to find someone else to question. "According to this, I am your eunuch!" Rey frowned and glanced at the Doctor. That was unnecessarily mean of him.

"Oh, yeah, I'll explain later," Amy said dismissively, missing the point of Rory's exclamation.

Under the pretense of looking around, the Doctor searched for any sign of the Signora. To be fair though, it wasn't as if they had to make a huge detour. Her school was near the centre of the city, and a number of people gathered to watch what must have been a daily procession. The young women of the school, set up in two neat lines and all wearing white dresses with veils, walked out. They didn't get very far before a black man ran up to them, ignoring the hissed question from the leader. He began to lift the veils up, looking for one girl in particular. "Where's my Isabella," he demanded, fearful and frantic.

"What are you doing," the woman asked. She was a little too calm for the ruckus, more annoyed than taken aback or scared. "Get away from there!"

Guido kept searching. "Isabella! Isabella! It's me!" He found his daughter near the back of the line, but there was no heartfelt reunion. She backed away as if she didn't even recognize him. One of the other girls hissed sharply, and he fell back to the ground in shock.

"Girls, come along," the woman beckoned, and led them away.

The only man in the group pressed his booted foot down on Guido's chest, forcing him to stay on the ground for a moment longer before leaving with an elaborate swish of his coat.

"Isabella! It's me," Guido still called out to his daughter even as two guards lifted him from the ground to escort him away.

"What was that about," Amy asked. The Doctor grabbed Rey's hand and left without a word. "I hate it when he does that!"

He led the way through a narrow passage near the school. "So what happened between you and Amy," she asked as they walked, tracking Guido's movements until they could find him somewhere isolated from other bystanders. She wasn't blind, and the Doctor was hardly one to play couple's counselor if he could help it.

He struggled with himself for an answer, but lucky for him, they soon crossed Guido's path somewhere tucked out of the way. "Who were those girls?"

"I thought everyone knew about the Calvierri school."

"We're new in town," she said. They were still holding hands, and his grip was firm. She felt warmer than usual because of it. And also curious. In one thought she reminded herself to _act normal_ , and in the next she wondered what had happened.

"Parent do all sorts of things to get their children into good schools. They move house, they change religion. So, why are you trying to get her out," the Doctor asked in a whisper.

Guido looked around obviously, double-checking that they were alone. "Something happens in there. Something magical, something evil. My own daughter didn't recognize me. And the girl who pushed me away, her face… like an animal."

The Doctor slung an arm around his shoulders. "I think it's time I met this Signora Calvierri."

Rey paused, causing all three of them to stop. "I should find Amy and Rory." She was worried about them—companions had a tendency to run into trouble when they were on their own, even more so than when they traveled as a group. And in any case, although she tried to close her eyes and pretend that nothing had happened, it was difficult to do so when the Doctor insisted on touching her so casually. The heat of his hand reminded her of how hot it was when the sun possessed him, which reminded her of her realization, and that made her skittish like a newborn fawn.

She left before she could find a reason to stay, like the slightly hurt expression of the Doctor's face, or the way his grip tightened for a fraction of a second before letting go. Putting both out of her mind, she set about tracking down Amy and Rory without any real intention of actually joining them.

There was an obvious tension between the two. Strange, since they were apparently supposed to be getting married in the morning. From what she'd gathered about this point in their lives, the Doctor had basically showed up and derailed their plans. That being said, she had a feeling even if he hadn't shown up, they would still need time to talk and figure out what they were going to do. All he'd done was just made that need more apparent.

They were walking through another narrow passage when she caught up to them. After making sure they hadn't gotten into any trouble yet, she decided to let them be. She stayed close in case anything happened, but she was far enough that she wasn't eavesdropping. The last thing she wanted was to become their third wheel, especially with Amy acting weird around her.

"Flowers, signora," a young girl asked.

She shook her head and kept walking, hoping the silence would help her collect her thoughts. Unfortunately, it only seemed to make more of a mess of them. She couldn't understand why it was so difficult for her to just fall back into step and act normal. People didn't go about declaring their interest the second they realized their feelings—even she knew that. And nothing had really changed except now Rey had a name for what the Doctor made her feel.

Moments later, a piercing scream echoed off the walls. She back ran without hesitating, quickly stumbling across a harrowing sight. The same man from outside the Calvierri school, the one who had stepped on Guido, was bent over the prone body of the flower seller. He had his head buried in her neck, like the mock embrace of a lover. A bead of blood escaped his mouth and trickled down her collar, staining her clothes.

Quiet steps, a habit she maintained even when running—or rather, especially while running—meant he had yet to notice her presence. Rey kicked out, knocking him away from the other girl. He recovered fast, hissing at her through a mouth full of fangs. Then, realizing what was happening, he quickly covered his face with his cape and ran off.

Rory and Amy came rounding around the other corner. Rey tore after Francesco, not wanting to lose him in the alleys. Amy's footsteps echoed behind her, signaling she had joined her in the chase while Rory checked on the flower seller. Francesco slipped around another corner, and she came to an abrupt stop as the ground was cut short by the canal. She grabbed the back of Amy's shirt to pull her back from nearly falling in.

Francesco was nowhere in sight.

With the backdrop of the setting sun, the four of them met up again by the Calvierri school. Rey hung behind at the back with Rory while Amy and the Doctor gushed about their individual discovers. "I just met some vampires," he exclaimed at the same time she shouted "We just saw a vampire!" Their voices overlapped as the spoke, making them both near indecipherable. Together, they jumped up and down with excitement.

"Okay, so…" the Doctor squished Rory's cheeks with both his hands. "First we need to get back in there somehow.

"What?!"

"How do we do that," Amy asked.

"Back in where?!"

"The school," Rey told him. "It's their base of operations, so in order to find out what is going on, we need to investigate more."

"Exactly, Rory, do keep up." He grinned at Rey, who rolled her eyes at his childishness, hiding a sliver of amusement for herself. "Come and meet our new friend."

He led them to Guido's place, a small house for a man of relatively small means, but it was well lived in. She could see traces of him and Isabella in every corner and every belonging, and knew at once that while their life wasn't perfect, they must've been very happy together. A map of the city was laid out on the table, which the Doctor and Amy looked over carefully. Rey studied it for a while, filed it away in her memory, and joined Rory at the back near barrels that smelled suspiciously like gunpowder.

He had been so considerate of her when she started out, it was only fair that she be considerate to him now that their roles were reversed.

"As you saw, there's no clear way in," Guido explained. He'd already gone over his numerous attempts, all failed, to get to Isabella. "The House of Calvierri is like a fortress. But there's a tunnel underneath it, with a ladder and shaft that leads up into the house. I tried to get in one myself, but I hit a trapdoor."

"You need someone on the inside," Amy realized.

"No," the Doctor said definitively.

"You don't even know what I was going to say!"

"You were going to suggest we pretend you're an applicant to get you inside the school, and at night you would go down to open the trapdoor and let us in," Rey summarized briefly. Objectively, it wasn't a bad plan, but she worried about Amy being in there on her own.

"Oh. So you do know what I was going to say."

"Are you insane," Rory asked.

"We don't have another option," she argued.

"They said no, Amy. Listen to them."

"There is another option," Guido added. "I work in the Arsenal. We build the warships for the navy."

"Rory, you might want to get off the barrel of gunpowder," Rey suggested. He slid off slowly and backed away in her direction.

"Most people just nick stationary from where they work," the Doctor said tensely, hands flexing in his lap. "Look, I have a thing about guns and huge quantities of explosives."

"What do you suggest, then? We wait until they turn her into an animal?" Guido turned and angrily poked the fire.

"I could go," she offered. To her surprise, the Doctor shot that idea down as quickly as he had Amy's. She wanted to argue the point—it would be safer for her to go. She had more experience, and she could take the sonic in case anything did happen. But the hard edge to his voice told her that he wasn't going to see reason no matter what she said.

His lack of faith in her abilities was more than a little disheartening.

"I'll be there three, four hours tops," Amy tried again.

"No, no, no. no, no, no. It can't keep happening like this. This is how they go." He sat on the bed, head buried in his hands. After a moment and a deep breath to calm himself, he sat back. "But I have to know. We go together. Say you're my daughter."

"What?! Don't listen to him," Rory protested.

Okay, Rey wasn't going to lie to herself. It hurt that he had chosen Amy instead of her. He didn't even think to send both of them together, just Amy. She tried to convince herself that this was their best option—two new applicants at the same time would draw attention, and it wasn't as if they could pose as related. Francesco might recognize her whereas he had only caught the barest glimpse of Amy. And Amy fit the part of a rich girl better than her in both appearance and acting ability.

Every single reason felt like an excuse to her.

It was her foolish heart that hurt the worst at the idea that he didn't trust her with this. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She'd told herself to act normal and what had she done? She'd gone and thought better of herself than she actually was.

Amy laughed. "Your daughter? You look about nine."

"Brother, then."

"Too weird. Fiancé."

"I'm not having him run around telling people he's your fiancé," Rory protested.

"No. No, you're right," Amy agreed.

"Thank you."

Once again, she missed the root of Rory's discontent. "I mean, they've already seen the Doctor. You should do it."

"Me?"

"Yeah! You can be my brother!" She grabbed him around the neck and rubbed his head playfully with her fist.

The Doctor smiled at their interaction. "Why is him being your brother weird, but with me, it's okay," Rory asked.

"Actually, I thought you were her fiancé," Rey heard Guido say not-so-quietly to the Doctor. She shifted a little bit more away from everyone.

He gave Guido a strange look—a mixture of annoyance, disappointment, and forced nonchalance were warring to see which would win. None of those emotions made sense to her, unless he was disappointed that he wasn't actually Amy's fiancé. That thought made her chest twist painfully—no. Act normal. Don't care. His choices were his.

"This whole thing is mental," Rory complained. "They're _vampires_ , for God's sake."

"Hopefully," she added a little more acerbically than she intended.

"So if they're not vampires…" Amy trained off.

"Makes you wonder what could be so bad it doesn't actually mind us thinking it's a vampire," the Doctor finished.

The night passed fitfully, and no one really slept. Amy and Rory, borrowing some of Isabella's and Guido's old clothes respectively, headed to the Calvierri school in the morning. Guido, after much protest, went to his job like normal. He kept pacing around and glancing back at the gunpowder in a way that it was making both the Doctor and Rey nervous. Rey herself was curled up in a chair by the window, soaking in the warm sunlight. She felt unusually cold, had been since last night.

"They're going to be fine," the Doctor said, mistaking her closed off reserve for worry. He was half right, but she also had confidence that Amy would be okay. Amy was just that sort of girl: capable.

Nodding was her only reply. After a while, she heard the scrape of chair legs against the floor as the Doctor dragged his chair from the table over to her. "Rey… please tell me what's wrong. If it's spoilers or— or if it's Amy and Rory— just tell me and—"

Why would he think she had a problem with Amy and Rory? She had a soft spot for all his companions; he had chosen them for a reason, after all.

She lifted her head to look at him. Ruffled brown hair, a still immaculately pressed shirt and straight bowtie. His face was pinched with worry and his hands were clenching and unclenching by his side like he didn't know what to do with them.

Her chest didn't loosen at the sight. A smile didn't threaten to tug at her lips. She didn't feel the urge to reach out and still his hands. That wasn't what normal Rey did. "I'm fine," she assured him, and she was. She was just being ridiculous earlier, but she was fine. "There were just a few too many thoughts in my head. But I'm fine."

Unconvinced, he opened his mouth to add something, but the door banging open cut him off. In walked an agitated Rory, angry and scared, and rightfully so. Rey checked the angle of the sun. They had a few hours left until it was dark enough they could sneak in unnoticed, and they were long, tension-filled hours.

Guido came home in the late afternoon. At sunset, they climbed into his gondola. He steered them along the canal with quiet precision.

"She'll be fine," the Doctor tried to assure Rory.

"You can promise me that, can you," he snapped back.

Rey stayed quiet, eyes opened and ears strained for any sign they were caught. They left Guido with the boat when they arrived at the entrance of the underground tunnel. The Doctor took the lead, torch in hand to light the way. "Right. Okay, I'll go first. If anything happens to me, take Rey and go back…"

Rory interrupted him abruptly. "What happened? Between you and Amy? You said she kissed you."

"What," Rey asked, louder than she should have. The Doctor and Amy kissed?

"Now," he asked fiercely. "You want to do this _now_?!" A wooden door stood at the end of the wooden steps, in slightly better shape.

"I have a right to know," Rory said, following him. Rey brought up the rear, glad she wasn't caught in the middle of the two bickering—were they actually bickering?—men. "I'm getting married in 430 years."

They went through the door and down another narrow passage. "She was frightened," the Doctor said. "I was frightened, but we survived, and the relief of it… and so she kissed me."

"And you kissed her back?"

"No, I kissed her mouth," he tried to joke.

"Funny," Rory said, tone implying it was anything but.

"Rory…" The Doctor stopped and turned around, aiming the torch at both the people behind him. Rey squinted through the bright light. The angle and the shadows made it difficult to make out much of anything. "Rory, she kissed me because I was there. It would have been you, it _should_ have been you."

"Yeah."

"Exactly. That's why I brought you here. And in any case, I—" A strong gust blew the torch out, leaving them all in the darkness. "Can we go and see the vampires now, please?"

At a slightly slower pace, they continued onwards. Rey tripped a couple of times when she misjudged the distance between uneven steps, scraping up her shins and knees some. Rory fell completely over a rock in a particularly terribly place, bringing the Doctor down with him. It might've been comical if she could see it properly.

Finally, they reached the trapdoor. The Doctor pushed it open and used Rory as a human ladder to climb up. He returned the favor by helping to pull Rory out. Rey looked up at both of them through the hole in the floor. The distance wasn't so bad, so she hooked her hands on either side, jumped, and pushed herself the rest of the way up.

The Doctor let out a low whistle, to which she responded with an eye roll and a light smack. They were supposed to be quiet, not make a racket to draw a crowd.

"Amy! Where's Amy? I can't see a thing."

"Just as well I brought this, then," Rory said, pulling out a small penlight.

The Doctor pulled out a large electric torch from his inner coat pocket. "Ultraviolet. Portable sunlight."

"Yours is bigger than mine," Rory noted.

"Let's not go there," he said.

She ignored them both and led the way into the courtyard. They could finish their weird, dumb competition later, there was work to be done now.

The school was eerily silent, devoid of even the ordinary night sounds. There was nothing rustling, no bugs chirping. Not even the water from the canal could be heard.

"If we cancel now, we lose the deposit on the village hall, the salsa band…"

"You won't have to cancel," she assured Rory.

The Doctor opened a chest and blanched when he saw the skeletal remains inside. "What happen to them," Rory asked.

"They've had all the moisture taken out of them."

"That's what vampires do, right? They drink your blood and replace it with their own."

She bent down to get a closer look, aiming the Doctor's light to help. The bones looked brittle and much too exposed for the decomposition to be natural. "It's not just blood that's been taken. All the water in this body is gone."

"Why did they die," Rory asked. "Why aren't they like the girls in the school?"

"Maybe not everyone survives the process," the Doctor offered.

Rory started to walk away, worry and frustration gnawing at him. He didn't go far before he stopped and pointed at the Doctor. "You know what's dangerous about you? It's not that you make people take risks. It's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around."

"Who are you," a group of girls asked in unison before the Doctor could respond. They appeared soundlessly, each of them under a different archway.

"We should run," Rey advised. "Now, I think."

They tore down the corridor away from the courtyard. The girls followed them through the school, faster than they looked. The Signora, Francesco, and a second man, Carlo, were together in another hallway as if they had been waiting for them. "Cab for Amy Pond," the Doctor asked. Behind them, the girls caught up and blocked their escape.

"This rescue plan, not exactly watertight, is it," the Signora asked.

The Doctor held out the torch, holding the girls behind them back. Amy, accompanied by another girl that could only be Isabella, ran at them from an intersecting corridor. She called out to Rory, who was equally elated to see she was alright.

"Quickly, through here," Isabella urged, leading them back in the direction she came from. Rey heard the Signora give the order to seal the house as the girls gave chase.

Isabella's route led them back to the underground stairs, exactly where they wanted to go. Guido was still waiting for them at the exit, and the gondola would be their getaway vehicle, not something Rey thought she would even think of a gondola as.

"They're not vampires," Amy exclaimed.

The Doctor soniced the door. "What?!"

"I saw them, I saw her. They're not vampires. They're aliens!"

He chuckled. "Classic!"

"That's good news," Rory exclaimed. "What is wrong with you people?!"

"Well if they're aliens—" Rey's explanation was cut short by the sound of the splintering wood. Their pursuers were breaking through the door to get to them.

The Doctor grabbed her hand, urging her to run faster. She was the slowest among them. "Come on, move!" He released her and ushered her towards Rory while he stood his ground, brandishing the UV flashlight like a weapon. "Keep moving! Come on, guys."

Dawn was beginning to break when they pushed through the final door separating them from the home stretch. "Quickly. Get out. Quick!" Isabella reared back the second she was exposed to sunlight, hands coming up to block her eyes.

Rey doubled back for her, but the Doctor was closer. "Oh. Come on, run!"

"I can't!" Before either of them could do anything, she was dragged back inside, the door slamming shut.

Rey reached for the door handle. There was a brief moment of disconnect before her brain registered the pain wracking her body. Electricity coursed through her like water through the canals of the city. Every muscle tensed, and every joint locked in place. It was worse than being tasered; if this was what electroconvulsive therapy felt like, she was never more grateful that it hadn't been part of her treatment than she was now.

One of the orderlies played had once a joke on her. For two months, he had been the one tasked with bringing her food. Every time he came around, if he came at all, he would always tell her that they were going to start her on shock therapy any day now to "electrocute the crazy out of her." He had even wheeled her to the room when she had been half drugged out of her mind, machinery all set up and ready to go. Rey's resulting panic attack was so bad, she actually threw up and passed out. When she woke up strapped to the bed, she nearly believed that he had been right before Dr. Usher came and assured her nothing had happened

She still saw that orderly around sometimes. He had been among the hospital staff transferred to Nevermore.

Everything was sore when she woke up, even her brain. She probably hadn't had a seizure though, so at least there was that. By some miracle, she hadn't bitten her tongue off or cracked her teeth either. Something nice was happening to her head, like someone was softly carding their fingers through her hair.

Still half-asleep, she thought back to the way the Doctor had done the same after everything that had happened on Akhaten. It had felt nice then too. She never knew that a simple action could feel so good.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself lying on the bed at Guido's house with the Doctor's coat draped over her like a blanket. The pressure was gone—or maybe it had just been her imagination and never there to begin with. The Doctor sat by the bed, arms crossed. His brow was furrowed with worry, contrasting the way his green eyes shone with anger. "You are never doing that again," he told her firmly.

"I'll try not to." Her tongue felt heavy in her mouth. She tested for sores, but the damage to the inside of her mouth was minimal. "But no promises."

His frown deepened as she pushed herself up into a sitting position. Rory was tending to Amy's neck and checking her vitals. Guido sat stony faced and quiet in the background. "Have we figured out what they are yet?"

The Doctor shook his head, quickly bringing her up to speed on what he'd garnered from his meeting with the Signora. She didn't like that he'd went off on his own, but given the circumstances, she decided to let it slide this once. At least he was briefing them now instead of keeping it to himself.

He slapped his own cheeks in an attempt to get his brain working faster. "I need to think. Come on brain, think, think. Think!"

"If they're fish people, it explains why they hate the sun," Amy offered.

He held up a hand to shush her. "Stop talking, brain thinking. Hush."

"It's the school thing I don't understand," Rory admitted.

The Doctor repeated the same thing he said to Amy.

"I say we taking the fight to them," Guido said. His voice was hard to mask the pain he was in.

"Ah-ah-ah!" The Doctor pointed at him.

"What?"

Rory shushed him.

"So her planet died," Rey said, hoping that speaking aloud would help her process her jumbled thoughts better. "And some managed to escape through a crack in space and time to here. They closed off the city to maintain control and one by one started changing girls into more Sisters of the Water…" The Doctor nodded, confirming everything she said to be true. "But they come from the sea... That's simple then. If they can't survive for long on land, all they have to do is change the environment to make it more hospitable."

"She said 'I shall bend the heavens to save my race,'" the Doctor recited. "Bend the heavens… bend… the heavens…"

"She's going to sink Venice," Rey concluded.

"She's… She's going to since Venice," Guido repeated questioningly.

"And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed," the Doctor added.

"You can't repopulate somewhere with just women," Rory said. "You need… blokes."

"She's got blokes," Amy pointed out.

"Where?"

"In the canal. She said to me, 'there are 10,000 husbands waiting in the water'."

"Only the male offspring survived the journey here," the Doctor realized. "So she's got 10,000 children swimming in the canals, waiting for Mum to make them some compatible girlfriends. Ew. I mean, I've been around a bit, but, really, that's… that's… Ew." Something clattered loudly above them. "The people upstairs are very noisy."

"There are only two stories," Rey reminded him. "That would be the Sisters of the Water on the roof."

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that."

The wood creaked. "It's the vampires," Rory asked, looking up at the ceiling.

"Not vampires," Rey corrected lightly. "Space fish."

"Can you run," the Doctor asked her quietly. She nodded. Everything was sore, but it was nothing she couldn't handle.

A loud thump, followed by the sound of breaking glass came next. Outside the window, they could see more of the school girls gazing in. Everyone jumped to their feet, readying for action. The Doctor pulled out the UV light while Guido crossed himself. "Aren't we on the second floor," Rory asked nervously.

The window broke, allowing the girls to reach inside. They tried to climb through, but the Doctor held them back with the torch. He tossed Rey the sonic, which she used to force them to reveal their true selves.

Guido gasped and reared back. "What's happened to them?"

"There's nothing left of them," the Doctor said sadly. "They've been fully converted. Blimey, fish from space have never been so… buxom. Okay… Move. Come on."

She switched the sonic off and handed it back to him. Amy led them downstairs, Rory at her heels. Guido brought up the rear, taking the UV light from the Doctor to hold off their pursuers.

"Go, go, go, guys." The Doctor urged Amy and Rory on. "Keep moving, go, go, go!"

Guido stopped before the front door, waiting until Rey was clear before locking it behind her. "Get her away from the door, Doctor."

She pounded on the wood. "I know what you're planning—" She knew he'd been mulling over the idea since she woke up and saw how he kept eyeing the barrels. "Don't do it!"

"Rey, get back—"

"He'd going to blow the house," she told the Doctor.

He gritted his teeth, fighting an internal war in his mind. "There's nothing we can do. He's made his decision." He pulled her with him, and they cleared the blast zone just in time before the explosion went off. The air pressure knocked them both clean off their feet to the ground. Rey's ears rang so loud, she couldn't hear anything else. The Doctor's body was over hers, protecting her from the brunt of the shockwave.

He was mouthing something, probably yelling. Slowly, the ringing faded and her vision cleared enough that she could make out what he was saying. "—kay? Rey? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine. Are you?"

He heaved a sigh of relief and nodded before helping her up. Her gaze caught what was left of the smoking house. Small fires burned through the torn apart wood, and she couldn't help but wonder how much of Guido's body survived.

"We should go," he said sadly. Soon, people would come to investigate, to help put out the fires and see if anything was salvageable.

She nodded and followed him back into town. Amy and Rory anxiously waited for them out of sight. Both visibly relaxed when they saw the Doctor and Rey. Guido's absence spoke for itself, and they could still see the smoke from the blast.

In the distance, Rey heard what she could only describe as the sounds of panicking people. Dark vapor and heavy smoke were rapidly blotting out the sky. Lighting crackled, thunder boomed, and a pouring rain came falling down like a curtain.

"Rosanna's initiating the final phase," the Doctor noted.

"We need to stop her. Come on," Amy urged.

"No, no. Get back to the TARDIS."

"You can't stop her on your own," she argued.

"We don't discuss this! I tell you to do something, Amy, and you do it. Huh?" Amy stormed off. Rory thanked him quickly and went after her. "You should go with them," he said to Rey.

"Not happening." Before he could say anything else, she hurried off in the direction of the Calvierri school. The bell tower that was the center of the disastrous weather was right across the road, and the people had quickly taken note of that and fled. The streets were barren, which was actually helpful in this case as there was no one blocking their way.

It wasn't hard to figure out where the controls were in the throne room. The large chair was the only thing in it. Rey popped the back open, revealing complicated circuitry she had never seen or read about before. The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver.

The Signora stood, basking in the accumulation of her years of hard work. "This must be your Rey. You're too late. Such determination… just to save one city. Hard to believe it's the same man that let an entire race turn to cinders and ash. Did you know that about him," she asked her.

"Yes," Rey answered truthfully.

"Ah. Well, now you can both watch as my people take their new kingdom."

"The girls have gone, Rosanna," the Doctor told her.

"You're lying."

"Shouldn't we be dead? Hmm?" He gave one last attempt to convince her to help as she turned to walk away. "There are 200,000 people in this city."

"So save them," she said heartlessly, and left them to die.

Rey ran out of the throne room and onto the balcony. If the Doctor knew how to circumvent the controls, he would have done it by now. The bell tolled loudly, apparently giving him an idea since he grabbed her hand and led her back inside. Amy and Rory burst in moments later, soaking wet and in agreement that their place was here instead of in the safety of the TARDIS.

"Get out," the Doctor yelled. "We need to stabilize the storm."

"We're not leaving you," Rory said firmly.

"Right. So one minute it's 'You make people a danger to themselves,' the next it's 'We're not leaving you!' But if one of you gets squashed or blown up or eaten, who gets…"

Rey gripped the throne for dear life as the earth began to shake. It was funny, and by funny she meant not amusing at all, how her brain could differentiate between earthquakes and every other sort of tremors. She was fine in the TARDIS, and other kinds of space turbulence was becoming the norm for her. But earthquakes, whether they were on the actual Earth or an alien planet, still set her teeth on edge.

"What was that," Rory asked from where he had fallen to the ground.

The Doctor quickly pushed himself to his feet and checked on her. "Nothing. Bit of an earthquake. Just a small one really, nothing to worry about."

"An earthquake," Amy echoed.

Rey knew she was pale. She was also breaking out into cold sweats and trembling slightly, but those were probably a side effect of her recent electrocution and almost getting blown up. Still, she forced herself to her feet, relying partly on the Doctor's firm grip on her arms to keep her steady. His right thumb rubbed those comforting circles into her inner wrist again.

"If you manipulate the elements a certain way, you can trigger an earthquake," she explained, focusing on facts to keep her grounded. "But that's not the worrisome part."

"No?"

"No," the Doctor confirmed. "Worry about the tidal waves caused by the earthquake." He kept his gaze on her, but she nudged him to the chair. They needed to concentrate right now on stopping the Signora. "Right, Rosanna's throne is the control hub. But she's locked the program, so tear out every single wire and circuit in the throne. Go crazy. Hit it with a stick, anything. We need it to shut down and reroute control to the secondary hub, which I'm guessing will also be the generator."

She stayed behind with Amy and Rory while he ran to the bell tower. There was no way she could make the climb up there in time with the shape her body was in, but she could wreak havoc on a simple chair.

Outside, the storm raged on, growing louder and bigger by the minute. All the electricity—the lightning, the charged particles in the air, the sparks from the ripped out wires—was starting to get to her. Every flash chipped away at her nerves. She knew she was flinching, and it must've been bad if even Amy and Rory noticed, but she couldn't stop herself.

When they had destroyed all they could, and Amy had even torn the legs off the throne for good measure, they ran back through the school and out the main gates. Rory spotted the Doctor atop the bell tower. He was scaling the side using a thick cable from who knew where in order to reach the large sphere at the top.

"Come on! Come on!" Amy and Rory cheered as he reached the generator and opened it. Seconds later the rain stopped, the clouds blew away like leaves in the wind, and birds even began to sing.

The couple next to her laughed and hugged fiercely in their relief. Rey spotted the Signora in the distance, face dark with despair, and followed her to a nearby quay. She struggled with her perception filter attached beneath her skirt until it finally gave out. Pulling off her gloves and stripping down to her chemise, the Signora walked along the plank near the edge of the canal, which had begun to bubble.

"Rosanna!"

The Doctor joined them, just as drenched as Rey was.

"One city to save an entire species. Was that so much to ask?"

He stayed by her side. "I told you, you can't go back and change time. You mourn but you live. I know, Rosanna, I did it."

"Tell me, Doctor… can your conscience carry the weight of another dead race? Remember us. Dream of us." With those final words, she let herself drop into the canal.

"No… No!" Both of them ran forward, but it was too late. Soon the bubbling stopped and Rosanna was gone.

As was often the trend, the walk back to the TARDIS was more subdued than the walk from it. The townspeople around them were cleaning up after the storm, complaining about the suddenness and severity of it while celebrating how quickly it had passed. It was a fair day where not too many lives were lost, but the losses they did suffer hung over them. Compared to the wide-eyed fascination and excitement they all had when arriving in the city, leaving it was almost gloomy.

"Now, then, what about you two, eh? Next stop Leadworth Register Office? Maybe I can give you away," the Doctor joked halfheartedly.

"It's fine," Rory said. "Drop me back where you found me. I'll just say you've…"

"Stay… with us," Amy asked carefully. "Please? Just for a bit. I want you to stay."

"Fine with me," the Doctor said. Rey nodded in agreement, shivering slightly in her still damp clothes. She had started this adventure soaked, and that was how she ended it. Talk about full circle.

"Yeah? Yes, I would like that."

"Nice one." Amy kissed him and unlocked the TARDIS doors. "I will pop the kettle on. Hey, look at this. Got my spaceship, got my boys, got Rey… My work here is done."

Rory scoffed behind her back and looked to the others. "We are not her boys."

The Doctor clasped a hand on his shoulder. "Well, you might be, but I'm not! If anything, I'm Rey's."

She nearly tripped over the step in the doorway.

"Listen to that," she heard him say.

"What? All I can hear is…"

* * *

She wasn't surprised when she opened her eyes and found herself back inside her room at Nevermore. This had happened before. More than once, in fact. She could spend weeks, even months at a time with the Doctor, but she always came back here in the end, as if she had never left.

Her limbs felt heavy and weak as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, legs swung over the side of the bed. They were stiff, not sore, but uncooperative like they hadn't been moved in a while. That, too, was a common occurrence after she woke up. When she woke up, she found that only a few hours or days had passed, but her body always felt like it had been still and asleep for longer.

Her journal was open on the mattress next to her, pages a little wrinkled. She was almost done with this one, her third since meeting the Doctor. All the notebooks they gave her were identical, but she made sure to mark the inside cover with the volume number.

It was always so quiet in her room. Other than the sounds she made herself, silence was her only companion. She had the area memorized like the back of her hand; knew every small dip in the wall, every spot of the floor that would creak if stepped on, every scratch and dent and crack.

Or maybe not. Speaking of cracks, there was a new one on the ceiling above her bed. She had no idea what they were doing upstairs, but occasionally one would form while she was asleep, usually on the ceiling or, less commonly, on the floor beneath her bed. This newest one wasn't particularly big, maybe a centimeter wide and barely five long.

It wasn't so bad, she supposed. Sometimes, counting the cracks were the only thing that put her to sleep, and now she had one more to add to the queue.

Rey closed her eyes. She had no idea if it was day or night, what day of the week it was or what month of the year. Every time she came back to Nevermore, she stayed for a while, and she would only jump back to the Doctor when she rested. She tried to will herself to sleep now. Anything to get back sooner.

* * *

 **So I have a small confession to make: I finished writing this pretty soon after the last chapter went out, and then it sat in my documents unedited for weeks... Thanks for sticking by me guys. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long. Feedback is always welcome, and feel free to come chat with me on tumblr anytime!**


	15. Cold War

**AKA In Which Mercy and War are Not Mutually Exclusive**

* * *

Sometimes, the TARDIS console room had a skylight.

She said sometimes, because sometimes it didn't. Like with the doors, the corridors, the rooms and everything in them, the TARDIS could move the skylight around. Rey wasn't even sure if it was just a skylight. What were skylights but just windows on the ceiling?

Usually, the ceiling window hung around somewhere in the library, lighting up the shelves with the colors of the universe. She liked reading under it once in a while, finding comfort for reasons she couldn't explain. Maybe because it reminded her that she wasn't alone in the universe. Maybe it was just because the colors were pretty.

Today, it was brought to the console room, and it didn't show the universe, but the swirling non-scenery of the Time Vortex. Odd, opposite shades were cast, like a chiaroscuro brought to life. She found it oddly fitting for their current topic of conversation.

"So we've met her before," she restated. The Doctor finally caved and told her about the mystery of Clara. He didn't give away specifics, just that they'd run across her in their travels in the past—his past—in ways that made it impossible for that Clara to be this Clara.

It certainly explained the graveyard stalking.

He felt so guilty when he explained it, and she was surprised to see that it wasn't just guilt from breaking their "spoiler pact." Rather, a sizable chunk of it was guilt stemmed from keeping this from her. He was so contradictory sometimes; it amused her as much as it baffled her.

"Is the reason we're traveling with her so you can figure out the mystery?" The Doctor did so love a good puzzle. Having an ulterior motive didn't mean he didn't genuinely care about Clara. She had seen it back on Akhaten, and every other Wednesday when they picked her up for a trip. But finding out that there was another reason would hurt Clara, and she would definitely find out.

"Sort of. Well, I mean, yes and no. I supposed you could come to that conclusion…" He started and stopped some more, spewing out words without really saying anything.

Rey softened the features on her face. It was becoming a little easier to emote, but she was far from the level of a normal human being. Most people still missed her micro expressions, and only those who knew her well could tell when she was genuine or joking unless it was _really_ obvious. It was likely that she would never be very expressive, but she didn't need to. All she needed was to come off as more, well, human.

Out of everyone, the Doctor was the best at reading her. It was something she was usually grateful for, but occasionally cursed. Some things she wanted to keep even from him. Especially from him. It was hypocritical of her to want to know and want to keep secrets, but she never claimed to be a saint.

And in any case, it was just a crush. Just a tiny, insignificant, miniscule crush. A crush that would melt away like snow under the sun.

"I'll keep an eye out," she told him. "And I'll make sure to keep it to myself if I find out before you."

He pouted a little. It was playful, but beneath the childish reaction, the core emotion behind it rang true. It wasn't her teasing that bothered him, but their situation. For a time traveler, the Doctor preferred things to be linear in his personal life, something she was the opposite of. He hated that they had to keep secrets from each other. Times like these, it was best to change the subject so he wouldn't ruminate on it for long. "Should we go and get her then?"

It worked. He grinned and stepped back, gesturing for her to take the controls. Rey flipped a lever and set the TARDIS in motion through the Vortex they had been just aimlessly floating in. In hindsight, she should have paid more attention to what he was doing in the background. She would come to regret not doing so later, after they landed in a submarine and not Las Vegas.

Rey was dressed for Vegas. She had prepared herself for heat, and wore a gray ringer T-shirt with shorts over black leggings. A thin cardigan protected her arms, and gloves covered her hands, but they did nothing against the freezing cold water she was thrown into the second she stepped out of the TARDIS. A part of her heart went to Clara, who was only wearing a thin, short dress.

"Intruder on the bridge," Stepashin, a lieutenant on the submarine, exclaimed.

"Who the hell are you," the captain, Zhukov, immediately demanded to know.

The Doctor helped her up, tucking the sunglasses he wore away in his pocket. "Not Vegas then," Clara asked quietly.

"Very," Rey replied dryly. Her tone was the only dry thing about her.

"No. No, this is much better!" The Doctor pushed his floppy hair out of his face and beamed.

"A sinking submarine?"

"A sinking Soviet submarine," Rey clarified, recognizing the technology and uniforms.

"Break out side arms," Stepashin commanded. "Restrain them!"

"410," Onegin, one of the officers, called out. It took a second for her to realize he wasn't just spouting random numbers. His eyes were fixed on the gauges measuring how many metres under sea level they were. The submarine's descent was quickly entering critical. "420! Turbines still not responding!"

"They've got to," Captain Zhukov snapped.

The Doctor ran a quick scan with the sonic. "Ah! Sideways momentum! You've still got sideways momentum!"

"What?"

"The propellers should work independently of the main turbine," Rey explained, shivering lightly. "You can maneuver the submarine laterally even if you can't stop the descent."

"Get these people off the bridge now," Stepashin screamed. His face was turning an angry red that suggested not enough oxygen was getting to his brain.

Two of the crew came up to grab the Doctor's arms. "Just listen to them, for God's sake," Clara pleaded.

"Geographical anomaly to starboard—probably an underwater ridge," the Doctor added.

"How do you know this," Zhukov asked.

"Look, we have just a chance to stop the descent if we settle on it. Do it!"

"600 metres, sir," Onegin reported. "610…"

"Or we can keep arguing and wait for the vessel to implode," Rey said with a false calm.

"Lateral thrust to starboard—all propellers," Zhukov ordered.

"Sir," Onegin asked.

"Now!"

Stepashin stepped towards him. "You're going to let this madman and his women give the orders?"

"Lateral thrust," Zhukov repeated.

"Aye sir!" The Doctor gripped the sonic with one hand and helped hold Rey steady with the other. "660…680…"

The submarine shook as it hit the ridge, almost sliding off it completely before it finally settled. The entire crew breathed a sigh of relief now that the sinking had stopped. Rey squeezed the water from her hair. It was times like these that she wished she had it short like Clara.

"Descent arrested at… 700 metres," Onegin determined from the readouts.

"It seems we owe you our lives," Zhukov said. "Whoever you are."

"I'll hold you to that," the Doctor said. "Might come in handy!"

"Search them," Stepashin ordered. He had a one-track mind, and it was currently fixated on the fact that they were suspicious strangers, likely foreigners, and probably intent on sabotage. He might've even suspected that they had somehow caused the damage that sent them sinking in the first place. It was a little hard for Rey to tell since he was rather paranoid about everything.

The soldiers hesitated when it came to her and Clara. She stared straight ahead with a blank expression while Clara inched closer. "Yes, I know, they're women. Now search them!"

They were pushed back against a pole in the middle of the bridge and patted down. "Are we going to be okay," Clara asked fearfully.

"Oh, yes," the Doctor told her.

"Is that a lie?"

"Possibly," Rey confirmed. "It's a pretty dangerous time period. The East and West are at the brink of nuclear annihilation."

"Lots of itchy fingers on the button," he added.

"Isn't it always like that?"

"Sort of. But there are flash points and this is one—hair, shoulder pads, nukes. It's the '80s. Everything's bigger!"

Hands reached down into the Doctor's pockets and pulled out a Barbie doll, a ball of twine, and the sonic. "I'd like a receipt, please," he joked, making a grab for the sonic.

"What is it?" Captain Zhukov took it from the crew member's hand. Rey made a note to steal it back later if it came down to that.

The submarine let out a loud creak and suddenly tilted. She grabbed the nearest pole, but her fingers slipped and she went back under the water. The Doctor called out to her, his grip tight on her upper arm as he pulled her back up to her feet, using his own body to help keep her up. Her traitorous heart started to pound faster, and she desperately tried to convince herself it was because of the shock.

"Doctor! Rey!" Clara shouted as she fell away from them.

In the background, the TARDIS began to dematerialize without anyone in it. "No, no, no, no! No, not now!" They ran to it, but it was too late. The time machine faded away before their very eyes, leaving them stranded.

Rey went over to Clara, checking on her. She was unconscious; must've bumped her head when she fell. There were no other injuries and her breathing came out normal, so it probably wasn't too bad. Carefully, Rey propped her against the wall away from the water. One of the officers helpfully offered up his uniform jacket for Clara, proving that they weren't all like Stepashin.

She shivered. The cold sank into her bones, deep enough to make them ache. Of all the times to be inappropriately dressed, it had to be now. Even in the shaky reflection of the ankle-deep water, she could see that her lips were blue.

Something warm was draped over her shoulders. Though still arguing with Zhukov, the Doctor had apparently taken a pause to give her his coat. She hesitated for a moment, then snuggled into the warmth, pulling the fabric a little closer. It was ridiculously big on her, but that just made it cozier.

"Captain, we didn't know the type of your ship out here…"

"Yeah, well, that's till the rescue ship comes."

"If it comes!" She fell into place by his side, standing a little closer than usual and silently thanking him by taking his hand.

"Oh, the sinking is just a coincidence, is it? Who are you?" Before he could react, Zhukov pushed the Doctor up against the wall. Clara gasped, signaling she was awake. Good. If she had been out for more than five minutes, then they really had something to worry about. Something told Rey that they weren't much in the way of medical treatment down here.

"Alright, Captain, alright. You know what? Just this once, no dissembling, no psychic paper, no pretending to be an Earth ambassador. Doctor—me. She's Rey, and that's Clara. Time travelers. Clara, you okay?"

"Think so."

"Time travelers," he repeated dubiously.

"We arrived here out of thin air! You saw it happen!"

"I didn't," Professor Grisenko piped in. He was the oldest member on board, though his lax attitude and the walkman attached to his hip might've suggested differently.

"Your problem, mate, not mine!"

"We were sinking," Clara began.

"And now we're not," Rey told her.

"What happened?"

"We sank, caught on an underwater ridge, and stopped."

"No, what happened to the TARDIS, I mean?"

She looked to the Doctor, a single eyebrow raised expectantly. "Never mind that," he dismissed. "Listen… Captain, breath's precious down here. Let's not waste it, eh?"

"You're right. Maybe I can save a little oxygen by having you three shot."

He tensed and stepped in front of Rey protectively. "What does it matter how we arrived," Clara asked, walking towards them. "The important thing is to get… out."

In between Clara's last two words, a deep growl echoed through the entire submarine. She shivered, this time having nothing to do with the cold. Everyone but the Doctor seemed to have heard it.

"Exactly," he continued without missing a beat. "Number one priority, not suffocating!" He patted Zhukov's chest. Instead of retaliating with anger, he stared at something behind the Doctor and Rey before backing away. She glanced back curiously and froze.

"Eh? Ah, oh, thank you! Finally seeing sense! Now, what sort of state is the sub in? What about radio? Can we send a…"

She tugged on his hand. He looked at her questioningly, but she just pointed at the armored creature standing behind them. Startling, he backed away, pulling her behind him as they went. "Ah…" The creature stepped towards them. "It never rains but it pours."

"Your biography is going to be titled 'That Escalated Quickly,'" she told him, almost numb to their current predicament. He quirked his head to her, nervous smile turning wistful.

"We were drilling for oil in the ice," Professor Grisenko explained. "I thought I'd found a mammoth."

"It's not a mammoth."

"No," he agreed.

"Is that…" Rey trailed off, not sure if she wanted to put it in words.

"Uh-huh."

"What is it," Clara asked.

"It's an Ice Warrior. A native of the planet Mars. And we go way back. Way back."

Zhukov huffed. "A Martian? You can't be serious."

"I'm always serious. With off days."

"Doctor," Clara whisper-shouted.

"Just keeping it light, Clara, they're scared."

"They're scared? I'm scared!"

The standstill was suddenly broken when one of the officers came up behind Clara and aimed his sidearm at the Ice Warrior. It turned and aimed the much larger gun built into the sleeve of its arm in retaliation.

"And now it's storming," Rey said.

"No, no, no, no, no, no! Please, please, wait! Just… there's no need for this! Just hear me out! You're confused, disoriented—of course you are. You've been lying dormant in the ice for, for how long?" The Doctor clicked his fingers at Professor Grisenko. "How long?"

"By my reckoning, 5,000 years."

"5,000 years? That's a hell of a nap. Can't blame you if you've got out of the wrong side of the bed. Nobody here wants to hurt you." Rey reached over to push the officer's gun away while the Doctor tried to talk the Ice Warrior down. Not an easy feat, given the cultural values of Martians. They were nearly as bad as the Sontarans when it came to backing down from a fight, especially when they felt wronged. "Please, just, why don't you tell us your name?"

"What'er you talking about," Captain Zhukov asked. "It has a name?"

"Of course it has a name," Rey told him. "And a rank. And deserves our respect."

"This is madness. This is a monster!"

"Skaldak," the Ice Warrior said in a low grumble.

And she had thought she was cold earlier. That was nothing compared to the chill that ran down her spine down now. It felt now that her blood had turned to ice. Three entire chapters had been devoted to this particular Ice Warrior in the history of the Mars.

The Doctor tensed beside her. "What did you say?"

"I am Grand Marshal Skaldak."

"Oh, no."

Skaldak growled and violently shuddered as a current of electricity studded him. He had enough strength to spin around and snarl at Stepasin, who was holding a long cattle prod in shaking hands. A moment later, he fell unconscious to the floor.

"You… idiot," the Doctor scolded, realizing that a precious chance had slipped through their fingers. Now that he had been attacked, they had basically ruined any chance of Skaldak cooperating with them willingly. "Grand Marshal Skaldak."

"You… you two know him," Clara asked hesitantly.

Rey introduced him. "Sovereign of the Tharsisian caste, Vanquisher of the Phobos Heresy. He's the greatest hero the proud Martian race had ever produced."

"So what do we do now?"

Stony faced, the Doctor's grip on her hand was surprisingly delicate. "Lock… him… up!"

It took four men to lift Skaldak up and drag him to the torpedo room. Someone found a link of chains and bound him to the pipes that ran along the wall. In the communications room, the Doctor, Rey, and Clara conferred with Zhukov, Stepashin, and Grisenko. Rey was trying not to panic, and surprisingly finding relative success, but that might have been because she was also half-frozen from the inside out.

"The Ice Warriors have a different creed," the Doctor explained. "A different code. By his own standards, Skaldak is a hero. It was said his enemies honoured him so much they'd carve his name into their own flesh before they died."

Clara grimmaced. "Oh, yeah, very nice. He sounds lovely."

"An Ice Warrior," Zhukov asked, still hung up on the terminology. "Explain."

"There isn't time!"

"Try me."

"They're a reptilian-like race from Mars," Rey quickly told him, "known widely as the Ice Warriors. When the planet turned cold they adapted by becoming bio-mechanoids—cyborgs. The survival armour was designed to withstand the freezing cold, but an increase in the temperature can cause it to malfunction."

"Like with the cattle prod thing," Clara asked.

"Like with the cattle prod thing," the Doctor confirmed, rubbing soothing circles in Rey's inner wrist with his thumb. He was slowing thawing her out, and she should've been grateful. The sooner she thawed, the sooner her crush would melt away… right?

So why did it feel instead as if the heat was bolstering her?

"Bit of a design flaw. I've always wondered why they never sorted it. Oh, look. You've got us telling you about them and I said there wasn't time!"

"Is he that dangerous?"

"This one is."

Professor Grisenko slipped on the headphones of his walkman, face pinched in concentration as if he were trying to make something out. Meanwhile, Stepashin and his one-track mind spoke up again. "Why are we listening to this nonsense, Captain? These people are clearly enemy agents."

"Eh?" Clara startled a little.

"Spies, Captain!"

"Pretty bad spies, mate. I don't even speak Russian!" The Doctor tried motioning for her to stop talking, but the words were already out of her mouth. For once, Stepashin's suspicion was outmatched by his confusion. "I don't… Am I speaking Russian? How come I'm speaking Russian?"

"Now? We have to do this now?"

"Are they speaking Russian?" Clara sounded a few seconds from panicking.

"Seriously? Now?!"

"It's the TARDIS translation matrix," Rey told her. "Translates foreign languages so they sound like English to you and, in this case, Russian to them. We weren't speaking English on Akhaten either."

Stepashin turned back to his superior. "In my opinion, Comrade Captain, this creature is a Western weapon."

"So they're speaking Russian," Clara asked again, still not fully comprehending.

"Yes," the Doctor exclaimed pointedly. "They're Russians!"

"A weapon," Zhukov repeated.

"Survival suit. What is the alternative? The little green man from Mars?"

"Correction. It's a big green man from Mars." Grisenko's tone was light and easy going despite the situation. Rey could appreciate someone who could joke good-naturedly at a time like this. Zhukov could as well, judging from his little chuckle.

Stepashin couldn't. "I do not appreciate your levity, Professor."

"Why does that not surprise me? Maybe they're telling the truth."

"The truth?" He scoffed.

"Yes, a revolutionary concept, I know."

They continued to argue. She got the feeling that this sort of thing was the norm for them. Stepashin wanted to report back to Moscow, and Zhukov reminded him that the radio was dead. He bristled at that, his back going ram rock straight like a board had been stuck between his shoulders and back. "The cold war won't stay cold forever, Captain."

"For God's sake, Stepashin, you're like a stuck record! We have other priorities right now. I want you back on repairs immediately; we need to keep this ship alive. Dismissed."

Dissatisfied, Stepashin loomed in front of the Doctor, attempting to stare him down. "Sir…"

"Dismissed, Stepashin!"

He bumped shoulders with Rey as he left, storming away like the nurses often did when she refused to cooperate. The Doctor stepped forward to come face-to-face with Zhukov, wiping away some imaginary lint away from the other man's uniform. "All we needed to do was let Skaldak go and he'd have forgotten us. But you've attacked him. You declared war. 'Harm one of us and you harm us all.' That's the ancient Martian code."

The beeping coming from Grisenko's headphones had steadily become louder until it was audible to them all now. "You hear that? Skaldak's sent out a distress call. He'll bring down the fires of hell just for laying a glove on him!"

"Unless you talk to it," Zhukov rightly concluded.

"I'm the only one who can."

"No. Out of the question. We're not losing you. I'll do it."

"What?"

"You can talk to it through me," he offered.

"Skaldak won't talk to you! You're an enemy soldier!"

"How would he know that?"

"A soldier knows another soldier," the Doctor said bitterly. "He'll smell it on you! Smell it on you a mile off."

"And he wouldn't smell it on you, Doctor," Zhukov shot back.

"Just let me in there before it's too late. It can't be you or any of your men."

"Well, it can't be you."

They were at a standstill.

She tugged on the Doctor's sleeve, feeling a bit like chopped liver during the heated interaction. "I can do it. I don't smell of anything militaristic… to my knowledge."

"No," he vehemently exclaimed. "No, no way! You're not going in there, Rey, especially alone! Absolutely not! No, no."

"She won't have to go alone," Clara offered in a small voice. "I could go with her."

Predictably, this started another of the Doctor's rapid-fire denials until Rey cut him off. "We haven't got much time, and we have even less options. You can either speak to Skaldak through us or I'll reason with him on my own."

His expression twisted, concern dulling his bright eyes. But he knew when he was beat, and once Rey had made up her mind, she was hard pressed to change it. "The first sign of trouble, anything, I don't care if Skaldak sneezes, and you both get out of there, understood?"

"Roger."

She was outfitted with a bulky headset that had a microphone attached. Clara kept a tight grip on the lamp she was given, and gave her an equally tight smile. Rey nodded and turned the wheel to open the door into the torpedo room.

"Ready, Rey?" The Doctor's voice was steady in her ear.

"Yes." She turned to the slumped figure of the Ice Warrior. "Grand Marshal Skaldak." The Martian salute was simple, just her right fist brought to the left side of her chest. Clara tucked the lamp between her legs and quickly copied the action.

"Good. Good. Now, like we rehearsed…"

"Sovereign of the Tharsisian caste. By the moons, I honour thee."

"Good. It's okay, Rey. Go closer."

She took a few steps further in the room. "We're sorry about this, Grand Marshal. It isn't what you deserve." The power abruptly went out throughout the entire submarine. Everything but the essential life support was offline. Clara let out a sarcastic sound next to her, but she took a deep breath and continued as rehearsed. "You're a long way from home and 5,000 years adrift in time. Please let us help you. We are not your enemy and you are not ours."

"And yet, I am in chains," Skaldak grumbled.

She furrowed her brow. Something felt off about his voice, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Skaldak was rightfully upset and defensive, but he sounded even more agitated than expected.

His armor was still.

"Clara, can you check up on the Doctor," she asked quietly, not liking the way the curved walls of the submarine distorted sound. The smallest drop of water hitting the ground echoed and echoed until it was impossible to tell where it came from first. And then there were all the echoing creeks as the vessel settled and strained against the pressure outside. "The power outage knocked out the communication systems."

Clara hesitated for a moment. Rey was worried she would argue, but she finally nodded and acquiesced without a word. She waited until the hatched closed before answering Skaldak. "The restraints are only until we can trust each other." The words tasted terribly in her mouth. It sounded like every excuse ever doctor and nurse gave her when she was strapped to her cot. "I know you're not in your armor anymore. Grand Marshal, please, reconsider."

Skaldak's laugh was empty and loud, echoing off the walls of the torpedo room. "I'll reconsider when you stop playing these tricks! What are you—not a soldier, not a civilian. Did you think I wouldn't notice? I was fleet commander of the Nix Tharsis. My daughter stood by me… it was her first taste of action. We sang the songs of old times. The songs of the red snow. 5,000 years, now my daughter will be… dust! Only dust." His voice grew heavy with sorrow, masked under layer after layer of anger.

"Your people live on," she told him. By now he should have heard back from his fellow warriors if they were still on Mars. The fact that he hadn't had him on the brink of making a suicide run. He wouldn't kill himself—at least, not without killing everyone on board the vessel and possibly causing even more chaos first. There were nuclear missiles on the submarine, and all it would take was one to ignite a catastrophe. "They may be scattered across the universe, but Mars will rise again. You can see it, just let us help you."

"I require no help. There will be no help!"

The communications buzzed back to life. "Rey? Are you okay?"

"Enough of your tricks, Doctor! It is time I learned the measure of my enemies. And what the vessel is capable of. Harm one if us and you harm us all! By the moons, I swear!"

"Get out of there," he yelled in her ears. "Rey! Get out!"

"He's abandoned the armor," she told him quickly, trying to find where Skaldak had hidden himself. The single lantern Clara had left behind wasn't enough. It was too dark to tell the shadows apart. A growl echoed behind her and she ran for the hatch, abandoning the search. The wheel was heavy, and slippery hands made it difficult to find a proper grip. She nearly fell over when it finally gave way.

Before she could do anything, Skaldak sprinted passed her and out of the torpedo room. She hurried out, running straight into the Doctor. "Rey! Rey! Rey! Rey!" He was just barely managing to restrain himself from hugging her. Instead, hands rubbed up and down her arms through the sleeves of his jacket, trying to knead some warmth back into her.

"I'm okay." She grabbed hold of his wrists to stop the frantic movements. "Doctor, I'm okay. Where did he go?"

Grisenko pulled his headphones closer. Clara shifted her weight between her feet anxiously. The look on her face told Rey she was a second from apologizing, so she cut the other girl off before she could even begin. Clara had just done what she'd asked, there was no need to apologize. "It's okay, Clara. You were great."

"Doctor, Miss Rey, the signal, it's stopped."

"Skaldak got no answer from his Martian brothers. Now he's given up hope."

"Hope of what," Zhukov asked.

"Being rescued. He thinks he's been abandoned. He's got nothing left to lose."

Zhukov tried to find a bright side. "But what can he do stuck down here like the rest of us? How bad can it be?"

"This submarine is carrying nuclear missiles," she stated plainly. "What do you think Skaldak is going to do when he finds out? Because he will find out."

Something must've fallen or given way outside because the submarine started moving again. It quickly stopped, but they were all jostled about. One of the hatches between the hulls popped open and more freezing saltwater started pouring in.

They quickly left the corridor, hurrying to the control room where Zhukov briefed the crew. "Comrades, you know our situation. The reactor is drowned, we are totally reliant on battery power and out air is running out. Rescue is unlikely but we still have a mission to fulfill. If the Doctor is right, then we are all that stands between this creature and the destruction of the world. Control of one missile is all he needs. We are expendable, comrades, our world is not. I know I can rely on every one of you to do his duty without fail. That is all."

Rey took a seat at one of the control banks, Clara next to her, and the Doctor standing before them. He was holding her hand again, rubbing those little circles into her wrist. At this point, she wondered if the action was just as soothing for him as it was for her. Actually, she thought he might not even be aware of what he was doing.

What a strange habit.

"Even if a missile did get launched, that wouldn't be… it, would it," Clara asked.

"'It,'" the Doctor repeated questioningly.

"End of the world. Game over. I mean, what if they fire one by accident, what would happen then?"

"I told you, Clara. Earth is like a storm waiting to break, right now. Both sides baring their teeth, talking up war. It would only take one tiny spark."

"But the world didn't end in 1983, did it? Or I wouldn't be here."

"New," he scoffed. Rey shot him a look. She still remembered Rory's words, about how traveling with the Doctor made people want to impress him. Those words hadn't been wrong, and even she found herself occasionally following them. It was because he said things like this that made people want to prove themselves in his eyes. "History's in flux. It can be changed. Re-written. How many of us are left," he asked Zhukov.

"12—and we can't find Stepashin."

"We split up and comb the sub," he decided. "One team stays here to guard the bridge."

"That's it? That's the plan?" Zhukov had been expecting something… grander.

"Well, it's either that or we stay here and wait for him to kill us."

"Okay."

"Is it true neither of you have ever seen one outside of its shell suit," Clara asked.

"'Shell suit,'" he repeated.

Clara shrugged.

"For an Ice Warrior to leave its armour is the greatest dishonor," Rey said lightly. "Skaldak is desperate, and dangerous. We have to find him and convince him to stand down."

Professor Grisenko walked up to them, holding up the sonic. "Will this help?"

"Ah! You saved it!"

"No, no, it was only the floor with this." He held up the doll next.

"Ah!" The Doctor took the doll and planted a big kiss on its head. "Ah, Professor, I could kiss you!"

He shrugged. "If you insist."

"Later," the Doctor promised, and turned back to the crew. Twelve survivors meant six could stay and six could search. They paired off, Onegin with another officer named Belevich, Clara and Grisenko, the Doctor and Rey. He scanned with the sonic, hoping to pick up some sign of Skaldak.

"So, why have they got a cattle prod on a submarine," Clara asked.

"To ward off polar bears," Rey explained. She was a bit jealous actually. Not of the animal harming, but she always wanted to see a polar bear in person. Maybe she could convince the Doctor to take her the Maritima IV—the entire planet had been converted to a sanctuary for them.

"Right you are, Miss Rey… er, sorry, Rey what?"

Clara turned her head to face her, also curious. "Actually, Rey is my last name."

"Ah." Grisenko shrugged. "In any case, we run across them when we're drilling, the polar bears. Can be quite nasty, you know?"

"I'd swap one for an Ice Warrior any day," Clara joked. "Cuddlier!"

"Courage, my dear." The Doctor flipped a switch and set off an alarm. She winced at the sudden blare. "I always sing a song," Grisenko added tangentially.

"What?"

"To keep my spirits up."

"Yes, that would work… if this was _Pinocchio_ ," Clara muttered.

"Don't knock it until you try it," Rey said. Even now, she could still remember the songs she had made up as a child. She still hummed them too, sometimes, to herself when she didn't want to sleep.

"D'you know _Hungry like the Wolf_ ," Grisenko asked. "Duran Duran—one of my favourites. Come on!"

"I'm not singing a song," Clara protested. The alarm finally shut off. The Doctor opened a hatch in the wall that let out a rush of air. He stuck his head in and used the sonic on it. An ominous groaning echoed. "What was that?"

"Pressure," he assured her, pulling his head back out. "Just pressure. We're 700 metres down, remember."

"Don't worry about it," Grisenko bid. "Think of something else. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, I am hungry like the wolf."

"I'm not singing!"

"Don't you know it?"

"'Course I know it. We do it at karaoke. The odd hen night."

"'Karaoke?' 'Hen night?'" He pronounced both incorrectly. "You speak excellent Russian, my dear, but sometimes I don't understand a word you're talking about."

Clara's laugh was cut short by snarls and screams. Rey ran towards the sounds without a second thought, the Doctor and the others hot on her heels. In a nearby corridor, Onegin's and Belevich's bodies were on the floor, faces contorted in fear. The water was pink with blood.

They'd been torn apart.

"Good God," Grisenko shouted. "It's a monster. A savage!"

"No, Professor. Not savage, forensic," the Doctor corrected, kneeling down to examine the bodies. "Well, he's… dismantled them. Skaldak's learning. Learning all about you. Your strengths… Your weaknesses…" He scanned them with the sonic before suddenly standing up and dashing away. "Come on!"

Rey grabbed the sleeve of Clara's jacket, pulling her away. Her eyes were wide with shock and she couldn't seem to look away from the scene. The Doctor stopped abruptly in another corridor and ordered that they stay where they were. Clara readily agreed.

"Stay here," he repeated before starting to climb up the ladder. "Don't argue."

"I'm not!"

"Right. Good!"

Rey climbed after him. If he wanted to stop her, he would have to pry her off the ladder himself. There was another body in the maneuvering room—Stepashin's. His was left in a state similar to the two they had found below. The Doctor picked up his wallet and flipped it open. His ID was on one side, smeared with blood, and on the other side was a photograph of a woman.

"Oh, Stepashin…"

Rattling metal and quick footsteps took off in another direction. They weren't far from Skaldak. Prompted into action again, the Doctor took Rey's hand and started scanning with the sonic. She kept her eyes above them, catching glimpses of shadows that could only be one person.

"Oh… oh… oh! Fast. He's fast…"

The chase led them through winding corridors until she could barely keep track of where they were anymore. At one point, they managed to lose sight of Skaldak completely, but luckily the sonic had a fix on his signature. They were coming up on Clara and Grisenko again, this time from behind. Skaldak had the latter's neck between his hands, red eyes gleaming in the shadows.

"No, please, don't hurt him," Clara begged. "Please!"

"You attacked me," he snarled. "Martian law decrees that the people of this planet are forfeit. I now have all the information I require. It will take only one missile to begin the process. To end this cold war."

"Grand Marshal, there is no need to this," the Doctor tried. "Listen to me…"

"My distress call has not been answered. It will never be answered. My people are dead. They are dust. There is nothing left for me except my revenge."

"What about mercy," Rey asked. "There's always that. Show these people that there's more to the Ice Warriors than destruction. Even in war there's still kindness."

"Mercy? Kindness?"

Captain Zhukov joined them in the corridor, sidearm out and trained at Skaldak. "You must wear that armour for a reason, my friend. Let's see, shall we?"

The Doctor grabbed the barrel and pushed it down. "No, Captain, wait!"

"I will do whatever it takes to defend my world, Doctor."

"Yes, great, fine, good, but we're getting somewhere here. We're negotiating. 'Jaw-jaw not war-war.'"

"Churchill," Grisenko asked curiously.

The Doctor pointed at him. "Churchill," he confirmed.

"Very well, we'll negotiate, but from a position of strength." Zhukov took aim at Skaldak again.

"Excellent tactical thinking. My congratulations, Captain."

"Thank you."

"Unfortunately, your position is not, perhaps, as strong as you might hope." A ruckus sounded in the distance, like growling and rattling and a sharp snap. Skaldak had summoned his armour from the torpedo room. It came speeding towards him, the chain still wound around the torso and ankles. He released Grisenko and ran forward to meet it. The armor snapped shut and sealed around him.

"How did it do that," Clara asked.

"Sonic tech, Clara. The song of the Ice Warrior!"

"Never mind how, what next," Rey asked as the crewmen that arrived with Zhukov opened fire. Skaldak, completely unaffected, simply turned and walked away.

"My world is dead but now there will be a second red planet! Red with the blood of humanity!"

The Doctor called after him, but Skaldak paid no mind. The crew stood, numb with disbelief, and could only watch as he trudged through the corridors to the control room. He headed directly to one of the panels, wires snaking down from the fingers of his suit and connecting into the submarine's machinery. Ports on the panel switched on their own and the lights flashed red as he activated the missile launch sequence.

"No! Skaldak! Wait! Wait! Wait!"

Uselessly, Zhukov aimed his gun at Skaldak again. "He's arming the warheads!"

"Where is the honour in condemning billions of innocents to death," the Doctor asked him, talking fast. "5,000 years ago Mars was the centre of a vast empire. The jewel of this solar system. The people of Earth had only just begun to leave their caves. Five thousand years isn't such a long time, they're still just frightened children. Still primitive. Who are you to judge them?"

The wires retreated and the Ice Warrior turned to face him. "I am Skaldak! This planet is forfeit under Martian law."

"Then teach them," he insisted. "Teach them, Grand Marshal! Show them another way! Show them there is honour in mercy. Is this how you want history to remember you? Grand Marshal Skaldak—Destroyer of Earth? Because that's what you'll be if you send those missiles. Not a soldier, a murderer. Five billion lives extinguished."

Skaldak's hand hovered over the launch button. All it would take was one lurch, one muscle twitch, and it was the end of Earth.

"No chance for goodbyes. A world snuffed out like a candle flame," the Doctor continued passionately. Then, when Skaldak showed no sign of considering his words, he switched tactics. "Alright, alright, Skaldak, you leave me with no choice. I'm a Time Lord, Skaldak. I know a bit about sonic technology myself." He held out the screwdriver.

"A threat," Skaldak asked him. "You threaten me, Doctor?"

"No. No, not you… all of us." He gave Rey a pained look, full of regret. "I will blow this sub up before you can even reach that button, Grand Marshal. Blow us all to oblivion."

"You would sacrifice yourself? Your friends—your Rey?"

"Yes." He held the sonic up firmly, as if it were a detonator. The tip glowed red instead of the usual blue as he turned it on. He didn't shake, his voice was steady, and still, he was begging Skaldak with everything he had not to make him do this.

"Mutually assured destruction," Skaldak exclaimed like he thought it was funny.

"Look into my eye, Skaldak. Look into my eyes and tell me you're capable of doing this. Huh? Can you do that? Look into my eyes, Skaldak, come on! Face-to-face."

Obliging him, Skaldak turned around. His helmet slid open to reveal his face. "Well, Doctor, which of us shall blink first?"

"You hesitated," Rey suddenly realized. The Doctor glanced over quickly at her but otherwise didn't move. "Back in the corridor you hesitated on killing the Professor when Clara begged you not to. What difference would it have made if you killed him then as opposed to killing him now? Or… Did she remind you of your daughter?"

Skaldak growled threateningly. The Doctor tensed next to her, his free hand itching to reach out to her.

"You told me that you sang together. You still have those memories and those songs, but it's all over if you push that button now. It's not just faceless people you'd be killing, it's families. It's fathers and daughters. There won't be anything left. No songs left and no one to sing them…"

He hesitated. With his face open to her, Rey could see that he was genuinely considering standing down.

The walls started creaking loudly, and the entire submarine rumbled. An electronic whine echoed off the metal hull, and Rey could feel her center of gravity shift as the vessel began to rise. "My people live," Skaldak exclaimed. For the first time, there was a hit of joy in his voice. "They have come for me!"

Zhukov leaned over to watch the depth gauge. "We're rising. We're rising!"

"600 metres," Professor Grisenko read. "550…"

They broke through the ice momentarily. "We've surfaced," the Doctor noted. "Your people have saved us."

"Saved me, not you," Skaldak corrected.

"Just go, Skaldak," he urged. "Please. Please… go in peace."

He was transported off in a beam of light. "We did it," Clara rejoiced. "We did it!"

The Doctor rushed to the controls. They were unresponsive beneath his hands. "No. No, no, no, no, no! It's still armed. A single pulse from that ship… I'll destroy us if I have to." He held the sonic against his forehead and closed his eyes. Were he anyone else, she would have thought he was praying. She walked up to him, not as confident as she would have liked that Skaldak would let them go. He took her hand, rubbing her wrist softly. Apologetically.

"Show mercy, Skaldak. Come on, show mercy."

"Da-da-da-dah," Clara sang nervously. "I'm lost and I'm found and I'm hungry like the wolf..."

A klaxon went off. The key ports switched back on their own and all the lights turned green again. The Doctor shut the sonic off with a huge sigh of relief. "Now we're safe."

Clara walked over and hugged him tightly. She shook a little in his arms, still worked up, and pulled away with a clear of her throat. "Saved the world then?"

"Yes," Rey answered.

"That's what we do."

"Yeah," the Doctor agreed.

They collected themselves and head to the exit, all feeling a little claustrophobic from the day's events. Zhukov opened the hatch to let them step out onto the outer hull. It was freezing outside, only water and ice and white as far as the eye could see. Overhead the Martian ship was barely visible in the sky. The Doctor whistled in appreciation.

"The TARDIS," Clara suddenly exclaimed. "Where's the TARDIS?"

"You never did explain," Rey added. The air was crisp and cold at the North Pole, but it felt good in her lungs.

"Oh, well, don't worry about that."

"Doctor," she grumbled.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't to know, was I?"

"Somehow I think that answer should be 'yes' even though I don't know what you're talking about."

He pouted. "I've been tinkering… breaking her in. I'm allowed."

"What did you do?"

"I reset the HADS," he mumbled, embarrassed, almost too low to hear.

"Huh," Clara asked, not able to make it out.

"I reset the HADS!" Again, his voice dropped.

"The what?"

"The HADS! The Hostile Action Displacement System! If the TARDIS comes under attack—gunfire, time-winds, the… sea—it… relocates."

"Oh, Doctor."

Rey sighed. "Yes, you really should have known. What sort of lives do you think we live?"

"I haven't used it in donkey's years," he protested, trying to defend his choice. "Seemed like a good idea at the time. Well, never mind, it's bound to turn up somewhere!" On cue, the sonic buzzed. "Oh! Ha, see, right on cue! Brilliant!"

"Brilliant," Clara repeated, his excitement infectious.

"The TARDIS is at the Pole!"

"Not far then," Clara noted, heading back to the hatch.

"The South Pole," he clarified sheepishly.

Rey turned to Zhukov. "Think we could have a lift?"

He, Grisenko, and Clara all laughed before heading back inside. The Doctor mocked them to Rey's amusement. They waited outside a while longer to watch the Martian spaceship. He saluted it as it flew away, his other hand holding onto Rey tightly.

"Do you think he would've let us go," he asked. It was oddly reflective of him. "If his people hadn't come for him, do you think he would've let us go?"

The optimist in her wanted to say he would. The realist wanted to argue that they'd never know. "He did let us go," she said. "That's all that matters."

"Yeah," the Doctor agreed. "Yeah."

* * *

 **Guess who's not dead and super sorry about taking so long to update? In my not-defense, the reason this update took so long is not because I haven't been writing... I just haven't been writing for Rey. In other words, guess who's been terrorized by new OCs and fic ideas? It's anyone's guess what'll come next, to be completely honest.**

 **Just so we're clear, I'm NOT abandoning Rey's story, it just might take some time to wrestle my brain back into submission, so please be patient with me.**


	16. Silence in the Library

**In Which Silence is a Shadow**

* * *

"Why do you like to read so much," Clara asked. It was unusual that she was around for downtime. Usually, they picked her up on a Wednesday, went on a trip, and dropped her off soon afterwards. Of course, sometimes the trips took days, even an entire two weeks once, but most of the time was spent undercover, running for their lives, or both at once.

Rey stuck her mark in the book. She had a pile of more next to her. Clara was surfing the web on her phone. They were both waiting for the Doctor to finish decontaminating before they could leave the galaxy's quadrant.

As far as she could tell, Rey was sometime later than the affair with Skaldak and the Soviet submarine, but not by much. It didn't really matter, but Clara was acting… not strange, but different. She had something big on her mind that she was mulling over, and it had to do with Rey. The specifics escaped her, and she was dying to know, but she could afford to be patient.

"Should I not," she asked.

"I didn't mean that. You just read a lot." She nodded at the stack which was up to her thighs. "Reading's great and all, but wouldn't you rather be experiencing?"

Rey cocked her head. "But I am?" She didn't understand the question at all. "Doesn't it feel real when you read?"

Clara shrugged. "I guess? If it's interesting and well written and I'm really into it. But not really."

It sounded terribly boring. Rey didn't always understand why the characters did what they did, but she didn't always understand why people acted the way they did either. Stories had a structure that was absent from real life, but that was nice too. Fictional, biographical, information—it was all the same to her.

"Is that how it is for you," Clara asked, strangely fascinated. "When you read a book, does it feel like it's actually happening?"

"All stories are real. They all happen, somewhere, somewhen, someway."

"But what does that mean? Are dragons real? Is there really a Mordor or Hogwarts out there? And what alien stories? Do aliens have stories the way we do?"

"Most of them," Rey replied. She didn't mind all the questions, but she wanted to finish her book. She was right at the climax where the ragtag group of protagonists were about to confront the Demon King. There was a character she suspected was based off the Doctor, and another that sounded suspiciously like Martha.

Clara was unusually quiet for a while. When she looked over, Rey saw that her mouth was actually moving. She looked down at her feet, which were starting to look see-through.

Ahh, this again.

She marked her spot in the book. "Bye, Clara. Tell the Doctor I'll see him soon?"

* * *

"Books! People never really stop loving books." The Doctor led the way out of the TARDIS and into an enormous, though empty, reception room.

Rey nodded in agreement. "As it should be."

"51st century. By now you've got holovids, direct to brain downloads, fiction mist, but you need the smell. The smell of books. Deep breath." Through the double doors and down a flight of stairs stood what might've been the most beautiful sight in the entire universe. Shelves as far as the eye could see, all filled with books.

Outwardly, she may have looked her usual self, but on the inside Rey was jumping up and down and squealing like a child. The Doctor had refused to tell her where they were going, insisting that it was supposed to be a surprise. "Are we where I think we are?"

He grinned. "Oh yes. The Library. So bit it doesn't need a name. Just a great big 'the.'"

Donna gasped. "It's like a city."

"It's an entire world," she gushed. "An entire world devoted to reading. The planet's core is the index computer and the biggest hard drive ever created. The shelves on the surface contain every book ever written. There are entire continents of stories, brand new editions specially printed for this place."

"Someone's excited."

"I could spend a lifetime here," she told Donna truthfully. Probably multiple if she factored in breaks to go on adventures with the Doctor. Her lips curved of their own accord—was this what a natural smile felt like?

The Doctor stared at her for a beat longer than necessary, face slack with shock. He quickly cleared his throat and looked away. Rey's mouth fell back into its usual relaxed state. She tried not to feel disappointed. Perhaps the smile had looked strange after all. Normal smiles weren't supposed to garner such a reaction.

He licked his finger and held it up to the wind. "We're near the equator so… this must be biographies! I love biographies!"

"Yeah, very you," Donna agreed, nudging Rey to shake her out of her thoughts before they threatened to spiral into a pool of negativity. "Always a death at the end."

"You need a good death. Without death, there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size."

"How else would anything get started," she added.

Donna picked up a book and was about to open it when the Doctor ripped it out of her hands. "Oi! Spoilers!"

"What?"

"That book is from your future," Rey explained. "Reading ahead spoils the surprises."

"Isn't traveling with you two one big spoiler?"

The Doctor faltered. "I… try to keep you away from major plot developments. Which, to be honest, I seem to be very bad at."

"Where are all the people?" They had been walking for some time now. Rey expected to have run into other patrons by now, but they were still alone. Libraries were supposed to be quiet but not this eerily silent. It felt like they were in a graveyard. "It's too quiet."

"Good question." The Doctor strolled over to an information terminal.

"The Library," Donna asked.

"The planet," he clarified for her, sonicing the machine. "The whole planet is too quiet."

"Maybe it's a Sunday."

He made a face of disgust. "The Doctor never lands on Sundays if he can help it," Rey told her. Apparently, Sundays were boring.

"Well… maybe everyone's really, really quiet."

"Yeah, maybe. But they'd still show up on the system." In a curious but troubling twist, as oft things were with the Doctor, the scan registered no one else but them.

"Doctor, why are we here," Donna asked him. "Really, why?"

"Oh, you know, just passing. Rey's been dying to come here so I thought why not."

"I should rephrase," Rey said. "Why did we make it here this time?" Every other time they tried to get to the Library, she ended up jumping, or they were knocked off course by a time storm, or came across someone's distress signal. "Ten minutes ago you were taking us to the beach."

He deflected. "Now that's interesting."

"What?"

"Scanning for life forms. If I do a scan looking for your basic humanoids—you know, your book readers, few limbs and a face—apart from us I get nothing. Zippo, nada, see? Nobody home. But if I wide the parameters to any kind of life…" He pressed a few keys and the terminal screen now read _Error: 1,000,000,000,000; lifeform number capped at maximum record_.

"A million million. Gives up after that. A million million."

"But there's nothing here," Donna said in denial. She gestured out to the vast empty space to make her point. "There's no one."

"And not a sound," Rey added. "A million million lifeforms and there's silence in the Library." They all exchanged troubled looks. The Doctor's hand found its way to its now-common spot in her own, warmth radiating through the fabric of her glove.

"Welcome!"

All three of them jumped. "That came from in there." Donna pointed back to the reception room. A statue stood in front of a large circular desk. It was vaguely person-shaped, but it was clearly made of smooth and glossy dark metal. Except for one side of the headpiece, which was actually a human face.

"I am Courtesy Node 710/Aqua. Please enjoy the Library and respect the personal access codes of all your fellow readers regardless of species or hygiene taboo."

"That face, it looks real."

"Yeah, don't worry about it," the Doctor told Donna.

"But a statue with a real face though! It's a hologram or something, isn't it?"

The node was a little unsettling to look at. Its flesh face stuck out like a sore thumb, and when it spoke, it did so without any expressions and only minor vocal inflections. Rey felt like she was looking at a doll. Or a corpse.

"No, but really, it's fine."

"Additional," the node said. "There follows a brief message from the head librarian for your urgent attention. It has been edited for tone and content by Felman Lux Automated Decency Filter. Message follows: 'Run. For God's sake, run. No way is safe. The Library has sealed itself, we can't… Oh, they're here. Arg. Slarg. Snick.' Message ends. Please switch off your mobile comm. units for the comfort of other readers."

"So that's why we're here," she realized. It figured. "Any other messages of the same date stamp," she asked the node. She wasn't going to refuse to use it just because it creped her out.

"One additional message. This message carries a Felman Lux coherency warning of 5-0-11…"

"Yeah, yeah, fine. Fine, fine, just play it," the Doctor insisted.

"Message follows. 'Count the shadows. For God's sake, remember… if you want to live, count the shadows.' Message ends."

"Donna," Rey began uneasily.

"Yeah?"

"Stay out of the shadows," the Doctor finished.

"Why? What's in the shadows?"

They walked through another set of doors leading to another room filled with bookshelves extending up higher than the eye could see.

"So… we weren't just in the neighborhood."

"Yeah, I kind of, sort of lied a bit," the Doctor admitted. "I got a message on the psychic paper."

 _The Library. Come as soon as you can. X_ flashed before them.

"What do you think? Cry for help?"

"Cry for help—with a kiss," Donna asked disapprovingly. She raised a single eyebrow and crossed her arms to convey just how unimpressed she was.

"I thought X marked the spot," Rey asked. Where did people get a kiss out of a letter? Though, she supposed if two puckered lips were to meet, the silhouette would vaguely resemble and x. Maybe if she squinted and didn't think about it too much.

"It's not a kiss," the Doctor quickly protested. "The X could be a signature…"

"Do you know who it's from?"

"No idea."

"So why did we come here," Donna asked again. "Why did you…"

"Look." Rey pointed. She didn't mean to cut Donna off, but it was important. At the far end of the corridor, the lights started going out, one by one. The effect made it look as if the shadows were physically traveling towards them. "Run?"

"Yeah." The Doctor grabbed her gloved hand and they took off. They ran back through to the reception room and tried the doors that led back out towards the TARDIS. It refused to budge, trapping them. "Come on!"

The darkness was getting closer.

"What, is it locked?"

"Jammed! The wood's warped!"

"Sonic it," Donna ordered. "Use the thing!"

"The sonic doesn't do wood," Rey told her.

"Hang on, hang on, if I can vibrate the molecules, fry the bindings, I can shatterline the interface…"

"Oh, get out of the way!"

That was the only warning they got. She pulled the Doctor by the back of his coat as Donna raised her leg and gave the doors a solid kick. Lock broken, they flew open with a loud crack.

They slammed the doors shut behind them. Rey grabbed a nearby book, spared a thought for the rough handling, then shoved it between the handles to bolt it shut. There was an electronic copy on the mainframe; the staff could always order a reprint.

"Oh! Hello! Sorry to burst in on you like this. Okay if we stop here for a bit," the Doctor asked.

A mechanical sphere, previously floating in the air, clattered to the ground.

"What is it," Donna asked.

"Security camera. Switched itself off." The Doctor picked it up and began to examine it.

"Nice door skills. Can you show me how to do that," Rey asked, meaning the kick to the door. Picking locks were more her style, personally. Less noise and less chance of getting discovered, but it wouldn't hurt to learn something new just in case. And kicking doors down certain saved on time.

"Yeah, well, you now, boyfriends… Sometimes you need the element of surprise. What was that, what was after us? I mean, did we just run away from a power cut?"

She shrugged. "Possibly."

"Are we safe here?"

"'Course we're safe," the Doctor said. "There's a little shop. Gotcha!" The covering on the camera's lens opened.

 _No, stop it, no, no!_ appeared on the display.

"Ooh, I'm sorry. I really am, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He set the sphere down gently. "It's alive."

"You said it was a security camera," Donna recalled.

"An alive one," Rey said.

A new message started scrolling across the display. _The Library is breached. Others are coming._

"'Others,'" Donna read out loud questioningly. "What's it mean, 'others?'" She turned to a node in the middle of the room. It had a different face than the last one, but it was just as unsettling as the one in the reception room. "Excuse me, what does it mean, 'others?'"

"That's barely more than a speak your weight machine," the Doctor told her. "It can't help you."

"So why's it got a face?"

"This flesh aspect was donated by Mark Chambers on the occasion of his death," the node stated.

"That's a real face?!"

"It has been actualized individually for you from the many facial aspects saved to our extensive flesh banks. Please enjoy."

"It chose me a dead face it thought I'd like? That statue's got a real dead person's face on it…"

"It is the 51st century," Rey said, trying to console the other woman. "Donating a face is like donating a park bench."

Donna backed away from the node in a mixture of horror and disgust. "It's donating a face!"

"No, wait, no!" The Doctor grabbed Donna by the waist, stopping her from stepping into the dark shadow behind her.

"Oi! Hands!" She slapped at them.

"Donna, look at the shadow," Rey told her.

"What about it?"

"The message said to count the shadows."

"One. There I counted it, one shadow."

"But what's casting it?" They looked up at the giant, circular skylight in the center of the ceiling. There was nothing outside or nearby that would create a shadow like that in the middle of the room.

"Oh! I'm thick! Look at me, I'm old and thick!" The Doctor grabbed his head, ruffling his hair. It was an unfairly attractive look on him. "Head's too full of stuff, I need a bigger head!"

They peered down a corridor to see it was much darker than expected. A single lamp lit the way, but it was blinking on and off. "Power must be going," Donna hoped.

Rey shook her head. She had done a fair amount of research on the Library after learning of its existence. "This place is powered by fission cells that are designed to outlast the sun."

"Then why is it so dark?"

"It's not dark," the Doctor said. Donna turned and pointed out that the shadow previously in the middle of the room had disappeared. "We need to get back to the TARDIS," he announced abruptly.

"Why?"

"Because that shadow hasn't gone. It's moved."

"Reminder: the Library has been breached, others are coming," the node announced. "Reminder: the Library has been breached, others are coming. Reminder: the Library has been breached…"

One of the side doors burst open. Six individuals donned in spacesuits walked in. All their visors were dimmed, hiding each of their faces. One of them, presumably the leader, walked right up to the Doctor. The visor suddenly flickered transparent, revealing the face of a smiling woman.

"Hello Sweetie."

"Get out!" He brushed past her without a second glance coming to stand beside Rey. With his back to the group he didn't see the way the woman's eyes narrowed in distaste. Neither did he notice the flash of hurt in her eyes, there and gone in a blink. "All of you, turn around, get back in your rocket and fly away! Tell your grandchildren you came to the Library and lived, they won't believe you."

"Doctor—"

"Pop your helmets, everyone," the woman said, simultaneously ignoring the Doctor's warning and cutting Rey off. "We've got breathers." She took hers off and the rest of the group followed suit as soon as they saw she was alright.

"How do you know they're not androids," one of the women, Anita, asked.

"'Cos I've dated androids. They're rubbish."

"Who is this," the oldest of the men asked. Mr. Lux's face was rapidly flushing red with outrage. "You said we were the only expedition, I paid for exclusives."

"I lied. I'm always lying. Bound to be others."

"Miss Evangelista, I want to see the contracts," he demanded.

"You came through the north door, yeah," River asked the Doctor, ignoring her employer's outrage. "How was that, much damage?"

"Please, just leave. I'm asking you seriously and properly, just lea… Hang on. Did you say expedition? Did she say expedition?" He turned to Rey for confirmation. She nodded, amused and knowing what was coming next.

"My expedition," Mr. Lux said, affronted. "I funded it."

"Oh, you're not are you? Tell me you're not archeologists."

"Got a problem with archaeologists," River asked.

"Rey and I? We're time travelers. We point and laugh at archaeologists."

"You do," she corrected. "I try to stop them from slapping you."

He chuckled, grabbing her hand and slipping his thumb beneath the sleeve of her shirt so he could rub circles in her skin in thanks. It made the nerves of her entire arm tingle. She was sure that if someone mapped the action potentials, the graph would be lit like a Christmas tree.

"Professor River Song. Archaeologist." There was a faint echo of triumph in her voice as she introduced herself. She took Donna in quickly, eyes narrowing as they passed over Rey, and then flashed a smile when the Doctor turned to look at her.

"River Song. Lovely name. As you're leaving, and you're leaving now… you need to set up a quarantine beacon. Code-wall the planet, the whole planet. Nobody comes here, not ever again… Not any living thing, not here, not ever."

"Please don't do that," Rey called out. One member of the group was about to walk into a shadow. She paused and looked back. "What's your name?"

"Anita."

"Anita, stay out of the shadows," the Doctor warned. "Not a foot, not a finger in the shadows till you're safely back in your ship. Goes for all of you. Stay in the light. Find a nice, bright spot and just stand. If you understand me, look very, very scared."

Mostly, they looked confused. River's smile widened and gained a genuine, almost hungry gleam. "No, a bit more scared than that." Miss Evangelista was the only one who made an effort. "Okay, do for now. You, who are you?" He pointed to one of the men.

"Uh, Dave."

"Okay, Dave—"

"Oh, well Other Dave, because that's Proper Dave, the pilot. He was the first Dave, so when we…"

The Doctor led him away with a hand on his shoulder. Rey followed as he steered Other Dave over to an aisle between rows of shelves. "The way you came, does it look the same as before?"

"Yeah. Oh, it's a bit darker."

"How much darker," she asked.

"Oh, like I could see where we came through just a moment ago. I can't now."

"Seal up this door," the Doctor commanded. "We'll find another way out." They rejoined the others, a very confused Donna seconds away from demanding answers to questions again.

"We're not looking for a way out. Miss Evangelista?"

Prompted, the pretty brunette approached the trio with papers in her hand. "I'm Mr. Lux's personal… everything. You need to sign these contracts agreeing that your individual experiences inside the Library are the intellectual property of the Felman Lux Corporation."

"Right, give it here." The Doctor grabbed his copy. Rey wordlessly took hers, and Donna nabbed the last one with a, "Yeah, lovely." Simultaneously, they ripped the pages in half.

"My family built this library," Mr. Lux complained. "I have rights."

"You have a mouth that won't stop," River told him before dismissing him from her mind and addressing the Doctor. Rey noted that her eyes hadn't left him once. Not in the entire time he had been walking around. "You think there's danger here?"

"Something came to the Library and killed everyone in it," she tried to explain when he failed to answer, too busy studying their surroundings for a way out. Barely three words into her sentence, River turned to glare at her. It was surprising, yes, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from speaking. If she paid mind to everyone who didn't want her to talk, she'd spend her life mute. Besides, the other group deserved to know the danger they were in, and if the Doctor wasn't going to tell it, it fell to her. "As in the entire world. Danger is probably an understatement."

"That was a hundred years ago," River argued back condescendingly. A shiver ran down Rey's spine at the combination of her cold gaze and tone. She felt like she was back at Nevermore and under the too frigid, too interested scrutiny of yet another doctor. "The Library's been silent for a hundred years. Whatever came here is long dead."

"Bet your life," the Doctor asked tersely. It didn't seem like he had picked up on River's animosity towards her. He finished his pacing and grabbed Rey's hand again. Three times in less than an hour—not a good sign. Still, it helped to calm her down and anchor her to this moment.

River smiled. "Always."

"What are you doing," Mr. Lux asked.

"He said to seal the door." Other Dave, obediently, had gotten to work doing as the Doctor asked.

"You're taking orders from him?"

"Spooky, isn't it," the Doctor asked. He led Rey to the other side of the room and gestured for Donna to follow, shining a torch at the dark corners. Whatever was in them had him on edge. She thought she could make out tiny black particles, but it could have been a trick of the light, or just dust. "Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark. But they're wrong. 'Cos it's not irrational. It's Vashta Nerada."

Her heart dropped to her stomach. If that's what had infected the Library, then they were worse off than she thought.

"What's Vashta Nerada," Donna asked.

"It's what's in the dark," she answered, the textbook descriptor slipping out.

"It's what's always in the dark," he confirmed. They walked back to the group. "Lights! That's what we need, lights. You got lights?"

"What for," River asked.

"Form a circle, safe area, big as you can, lights pointing out."

"Oi! Do as he says."

"You're not listening to this man," Mr. Lux complained.

River rolled her eyes. "Apparently, I am. Anita, unpack the lights. Other Dave, make sure the door's secure, then help Anita. Mr. Lux, put your helmet back on, block the visor. Proper Dave, find an active terminal. I want you to access the Library database, see what you can find out about what happened here a hundred years ago. Pretty Boy, you're with me. Step into my office." She walked over to a desk half covered with books, knowing without looking that her orders were being obeyed.

"Professor Song, why am I the only one wearing my helmet?"

"I don't fancy you."

"Probably I can help you," the Doctor said to Proper Dave.

"Pretty Boy, with me I said," River called when he didn't follow.

He looked to Rey in confusion. "Oh, I'm Pretty Boy?"

She shrugged. Objectively, she supposed he was conventionally attractive.

"Yes," Donna answered. "Ooh, that came out a bit quick!"

" _Pretty?_ "

"Would you prefer silly? Or maybe cocky." Rey teased with a straight face.

He pouted at her.

"No, you'd prefer clever." This got her a smile. Donna rolled her eyes but nodded along. "You should see what she wants. I'll help Proper Dave."

He squeezed her hand briefly before letting go. "Don't let your shadows cross," he called out as we walked over to River. "Seriously, don't even let them touch. Any of them could be infected."

"How can a shadow be infected," Other Dave asked.

"The same way anything else is," Rey answered.

"Excuse me, can I help," Miss Evangelista asked.

"No, we're fine," Anita told her curtly.

"I could just… you know, hold things."

"No, really, we're okay," Other Dave insisted.

Donna walked over to them as Miss Evangelista dejectedly took a few steps back, asking what their problem was. Apparently, they were all in agreement that Miss Evangelista was best left when she had nothing she could mess up. "Couldn't tell the difference between the escape pod and the bathroom," Anita relayed, stifling down a snicker. "We had to go back for her. Twice."

In the corner of her eye, Rey saw a flash of familiar blue. She did a double-take, zeroing in on the journal on the desk. It was hard to tell from the distance and the bad angle, but she swore that River's book looked familiar.

Or maybe not. The situation was just making her over-think things again. It was probably just a coincidence.

"So the Doctor and you..."

Her attention snapped back to Proper Dave. She hadn't been trying to eavesdrop on their conversation, but she was also curious as to why River didn't like her. To her knowledge, they had never met before. Though she seemed to know the Doctor, so maybe it was just that they hadn't met yet. Had—would—Rey offended her in some way?

"There is no Doctor and me," she answered automatically.

Proper Dave gave her a disbelieving look. "So what were you guys doing here?"

"We were on our way to the beach."

"Kinda far from the ocean, isn't it," he asked, unable to tell that she'd been joking.

"That's how it is with the Doctor. Plan for the beach and wind up dealing with an infestation. It's a shame we couldn't read some of the books first."

"You like reading that much?"

She paused, remembering Clara's earlier question. The answer was still the same—yes—and she didn't understand why it was such a surprise. Did she not look like someone who enjoyed books?

"It helps to pass the time," she told him.

"Doesn't seem like you're short any time-passing activities," Proper Dave joked.

Her worst memories, worse than bullying nurses or orderlies, worse than invasive therapy sessions, were when she was stuck without something to occupy herself with. When her reading collection was confiscated, when she was punished for acting out, when Dr. Usher decided she needed a stint in a straightjacket and the padded room to make her more agreeable. When Rey was stuck with no one but her own thoughts and insecurities.

The terminal started ringing, drawing everyone's attention to it. "Sorry, that was me," Proper Dave said. "Trying to get through into the security protocols, I seemed to have set something off. What is that? Is that an alarm?"

"Doctor," Donna called out. "Doctor, that sounds like…"

"It is. It's a phone!" He rushed over.

"I'm trying to call up the data core, but it's not responding," Proper Dave explained. "Just that noise."

"But it's a phone," Donna insisted.

"Let me try something." The Doctor began inputting commands into the terminal. The screen flashed back an _ACCESS DENIED_ message. "Okay, doesn't like that, let's try something else." He typed some more. "Okay, here it comes. Hello?"

A young girl's face greeted them back. She blinked in surprise, tilting her head slightly as she took them in. "Hello. Are you in my television?"

"Well, no, I'm— I'm… sort of in space. I— I was trying to call up the data core of a triple-grid security processor."

"Would you like to speak to my dad," the girl asked, having no idea what he was saying.

"Dad or mum, that'd be lovely."

"I know you," she suddenly exclaimed. "You were in my library."

 _Her_ library?

" _Your_ library," the Doctor asked out loud.

"The Library's never been on television before. What have you done?"

"Ah, I… I just rerouted the interface…" The connection cut out and the girl disappeared into static.

"What happened," River asked. "Who was that?"

He tried to get the video back, but all his attempts garnered the same ACCESS DENIED error message. "I need another terminal," he said. "Keep working on those lights, we need those lights."

River clapped her hands to get the group going. "You heard him, people! Let there be light."

While the Doctor worked on the second terminal, Rey was preoccupied with River's blue journal left on the nearby desk. She hadn't been imagining things—it was identical to the ones she had, down to the pattern of the cover.

That had to be a coincidence. Maybe her journal was just a common design. And it wasn't like Nevermore would give her one of a kind, custom-made journals to write in. It was like the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, just her brain picking out patterns where there weren't any.

She was still staring when River stepped in front of her and bodily blocked the book from her view. "You're not allowed to see inside. It's against the rules."

Contempt radiated off her, all but screamed by the stiffness of her stance, the hard line of her jaw, and the way she literally looked down on her with her eyes. Since the others hadn't noticed, Rey figured it was masked well enough that normal people wouldn't see. Which made it very clear that her only problem was with Rey.

River was surprisingly easy to read. Rey had always found people with strong personalities easier to see. But the exchange went both ways. They invaded her thoughts more readily, colored her world more strongly. She started to see and think like they did and if they were too strong, she started forgetting what "Rey" was supposed to be like.

In this case, her first reaction was to match hostility with hostility. She thought that if River didn't like her, then fine, she didn't like River either. It didn't make sense, of course. If she had wronged River then she should work to make amends. Because even if she hadn't done it yet, it had already happened for River. Their experiences didn't preclude each other.

She took in a deep breath and tried to hold onto that chain of thought and not the anger or irritation or steadily building worry coming from everyone else. She was Rey, she wasn't River or the Doctor or Anita. Rey.

It was probably best if she kept a distance. Just until she had herself under control. They really didn't need a fight breaking out and dividing them.

"Whose rules," came out of her mouth before she could help it. Great. So much for self-control.

"You know whose rules."

 _You have to write it all down, Rey. You know the rules._

On their own, Books started flying off the shelves, snapping her out of her thoughts. "What's that," the Doctor asked, unknowingly breaking the standoff. "I didn't do that, did you do that?"

"Not me," Proper Dave denied. The terminal screen still had _ACCESS DENIED_ flashing on it. Above, CAL was displayed.

"What's CAL," Rey asked.

The books stopped throwing themselves off the shelves, tricking them with the idea of a reprieve. They started back up again before too long, this time with increased ferocity. "What's causing that," River asked. "Is it the little girl?"

"But who is the little girl," the Doctor wondered. "What's she got to do with this place? How does the data core work? What's the principle? What's CAL?"

"Ask Mr. Lux."

He turned to the other man. "CAL, what is it?"

"Sorry. You didn't sign your personal experience contracts."

Rey jerked back as a book zoomed just past her head. She inched over to the Doctor, trying to figure out what Mr. Lux was hiding. "Everyone is in danger and you're trying to protect a patent?"

No, that wasn't quite right. Why would Mr. Lux come himself if he was worried about money? He could just as easily oversee the expedition via proxy or remotely, but instead he risked his own safety with no guarantee of reward. It wasn't just cockiness. She was missing something, she just couldn't see it past the irritation and worry clouding her mind.

He threw his nose in the air. "I'm protecting my family's pride. I wouldn't expect a child like you to understand."

"Well, funny thing, Mr. Lux, I don't want to see everyone in this room dead because some idiot thinks his pride is more important," the Doctor shot back.

"Then why don't you sign his contract," River taunted. She turned to the Doctor, making it clear she was addressing him before playfully adding, "I didn't either. I'm getting worse than you."

He looked between her and Rey curiously. More specifically, he noticed the distance they stood apart from one another and finally got the inkling that it wasn't all roses between them. A frown tugged at his lips. "Okay, okay, okay. Let's start at the beginning. What happened here? On the actual day, a hundred years ago, what physically happened?"

"There was a message from the Library." Again, River only had eyes for the Doctor. Her voice gained a soft edge to it. Fondness, Rey determined. There was something hard in it too, like devotion. And something in the middle ground that was definitely sadness. "Just one. 'The lights are going out.' Then the computer sealed the planet, and there was nothing for a hundred years."

"It's taken three generations of my family just to decode the seals and get back in," Mr. Lux added.

"Um… Excuse me…" Miss Evangelista said in a small voice.

"Not just now," he dismissed her.

"There was one other thing in the last message," River told the Doctor.

"That's confidential," Mr. Lux protested.

"I trust this man. With my life. With everything." Her eyes flickered from Mr. Lux to Rey to the Doctor. Some part of that comment was for her, but which part?

A thought struck her, an explanation for why River was acting like this. Or maybe it would be better to call it a fear. Could she know how Rey felt about the Doctor? Clearly, they knew each other, even if he didn't know River yet. It was like when she had met the Doctor for the first time in the Ood-Sphere: it was the first time for her but not for him.

Maybe this how he met River. Maybe from River's perspective, they were already in a relationship. Maybe she thought Rey was trying to butt in. Thinking of it that way made so much sense. All the books said that jealousy made people do things they normally wouldn't, and from what she had seen, River's hostility towards her wasn't typical.

"You've only just met him," Mr. Lux protested.

"No, _he's_ only just met _me_."

Bingo.

Miss Evangelista tried again to get someone's attention. "Um. This might be important actually…"

"In a moment," Mr. Lux snapped.

River wasn't waiting anymore. "This is a data extract that came with the message." She held out her PDA to show the display to the Doctor.

"'4022 saved,'" he read out loud. "'No survivors.'"

"4022, that's the exact number of people who were in the Library when the planet was sealed."

"But how can 4022 people have been saved if there were no survivors," Donna asked. There was an underlying of hostility in her voice. She was getting cross the way she always did when things didn't make sense. It actually made Rey feel a little better. This, at least, was something consistant.

"That's what we're here to find out."

"And so far, what we haven't found are any bodies," Mr. Lux pointed out.

Miss Evangelista screamed. Rey turned back to look for her, but she had disappeared from the room. There was a gap in the Library wall that hadn't been there before, probably what Miss Evangelista had been trying to alert them to. In the now adjoining lecture room, a skeleton clothed in a spacesuit was waiting.

"Everybody, careful," the Doctor warned. "Stay in the light."

"You keep saying that. I don't see the point," Proper Dave complained.

"Who screamed?"

"Miss Evangelista."

"Miss Evangelista, please state your current…" River, speaking into the communicator sewed into her spacesuit, trailed off when she realized her voice was echoing from the same direction as the skeleton.

"Please state your current… position," she tried again. The last word came out as little more than a whisper as the horrific realization dawned on all of them. With shaking hands, River pulled out the comm. from the suit's collar. It flashed green to show them it was still active.

"It's her. It's Miss Evangelista."

"We heard her scream a few seconds ago," Anita said. "What could do that to a person in a few seconds?"

"It took a lot less than a few seconds," the Doctor told them solemnly.

"What did?"

Miss Evangelista's voice called out from the communicator before he could answer. "Hello?"

"Um, I'm sorry everyone," River said stiffly. "Um, this isn't going to be pleasant. She's ghosting."

"She's what," Donna asked.

"Hello, excuse me? I— I'm sorry, hello? Excuse me?"

"That's… that's her, that's Miss Evangelista?"

"I don't want to sound horrible, but couldn't we just… you know," Other Dave asked.

"This is her last moment," River admonished firmly. "No, we can't. A little respect, thank you."

"Sorry, where am I? Excuse me?"

"But that's Miss Evangelista," Donna repeated, still not understanding. Or rather, she was trying not to understand, because she knew the truth was horrible and she didn't want to believe it.

"It's a data ghost. She'll be gone in a moment," River explained. She spoke into her own communicator, trying to comfort whatever was left of the other woman's consciousness. "Miss Evangelista, you're fine, just relax. We'll be with you presently."

"What's a data ghost?"

It was a somewhat common glitch from when neurotech was still in its beginning stages. Rey felt sick experiencing it. "There's a neural relay in the communicator," she explained, trying to break it to Donna gently. "It's sort of like a SIM card in your head. Let's you do things like sent thought mails or automatically translate inputs. Sometimes it can hold an impression of a living consciousness for a short time after death. Like a digital afterimage."

"My grandfather lasted a day," Anita shared with them. "Kept talking about his shoelaces."

"She's in there?!"

"I can't see, I can't… Where am I?"

"She's just brainwaves now," Proper Dave insisted, trying to rationalize it. "The pattern won't hold for long."

"She's conscious," Donna protested. "She's thinking."

"I can't see, I can't… I don't know what I'm thinking."

The Doctor tried to sooth her. "She's a footprint on the beach. And the tide's coming in." His hand found Rey's, thumb rubbing against her wrist and betraying his own unease.

"Where's that woman? The nice woman… is she there?"

"What woman," Mr. Lux asked.

"She means… I think she means me," Donna offered.

"Is she there? The nice woman?"

"Yeah, she's here. Hang on." River held the communicator out towards Donna. "Go ahead. She can hear you."

"Hello? Are you there?"

Donna froze in place.

"Help her," Rey whispered quietly.

She shook her head, eyes brimming with tears. "She's dead."

"And you can still help her."

"Hello? Is that the nice woman?"

"Yeah," Donna answered weakly. "Hello. Yeah, I'm— I'm… I'm here. You okay?"

"What I said before, about being stupid. Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh."

Her tears fell freely now. "'Course I won't," Donna promised. "'Course I won't tell them."

"Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh," Miss Evangelista repeated. She was starting to loop.

"I won't tell them, I said I won't."

"Don't tell the other, they'll only laugh."

"I'm not going to tell them," Donna insisted. The lights of the neural relay started blinking. Five green bars became four, then three.

"Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh," Miss Evangelista said for the fourth time.

"She's looping now. The pattern's degrading," River informed them.

"I can't think, I… don't know. I… I… Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream." She repeated it over and over.

"Does anyone mind if I…" River stepped towards Miss Evangelista's skeleton and turned the relay off.

"That was… that was horrible. That was the most horrible thing I've ever seen." Rey stepped towards Donna and laid a hand on her back. She could feel through her gloves how badly Donna was shaking.

"No, it's just a freak of technology," River claimed. "But whatever did this to her, whatever killed her… I'd like a word with that."

"I'll introduce you," the Doctor stonily offered. He led the way back where they came. "I'm gonna need a packed lunch."

Rey coaxed Donna along, keeping her hand on her back. For the umpteenth time, she wished she knew the right thing to say to make another person feel better. "You did help her."

"Rey… Are you feeling better?"

She looked at Donna curiously. "Am I sick in my future?"

Donna seemed to realize her mistake quickly. Hastily, she wiped her tears away. "The Doctor said we can't tell you."

On the other side of the room, River crouched, digging for something in her bag. The Doctor kneeled by her side, attention caught on something in it. "Does it bother you," Donna asked, making it very obvious she was trying to change the subject. "The way that River Song keeps flirting with the Doctor. If she tried that with my man, I'da smacked her my now. And don't think I didn't notice the way she looked at you."

Rey frowned. "The Doctor isn't 'my man.'" She had been doing a good job at acting like her little revelation never happened, hasn't she? "I think… I think Professor River Song is someone important in his future. You know how handsy the Doctor can get—she might see me as in the way of their relationship."

Donna scoffed. "Trust me. Him and her? Never gonna happen."

"Why not," she asked, genuinely curious.

"Rey…" Donna began hesitantly.

"Rey," the Doctor called, unknowingly interrupting. "Come over here, will you?"

She made sure Donna was alright with her leaving before walking over to join him and River. Donna gave her an exaggerated eye roll, but paired it with a thankful smile. The Doctor had a frown on his face like he had just heard something unpleasant.

"Who are you," he asked River, hand sliding down to hold Rey's hand. She squashed the simultaneous and conflicting urges to pull away or hold his hand tighter.

"Professor River Song, University of…"

"To _us_ ," he clarified. "Who are you to me and Rey?"

"Again, spoilers." An indecipherable expression crossed her face for a split second before it was gone. She handed him a square container. "Chicken and a bit of salad. Knock yourself out."

He took it, accepting her deflection but refusing to give up on finding out the truth. "Right you lot. Let's all meet the Vashta Nerada." Walking to the edge of the circle of light, he picked out a spot where the shadows seemed the darkest before dropping to his stomach and sonicing the air.

Donna gravitated back over to Rey, not by her side, but hovering near. She had been doing that lately. Rather than comfort seeking, the action had a protective feel to it.

"You travel with him, don't you," River asked her. "The Doctor… and Rey. You travel with them."

"What of it," Donna asked stiffly.

The Doctor shuffled over to Proper Dave, still scanning. Rey eyed his feet warily. "Can you move over a bit, Proper Dave?"

"Why?"

"Just over by the water cooler."

He moved to stand apart from the others.

"You know him, don't you," Donna asked River. Rey wasn't trying to overhear, but the safe space was only so big, and her hearing was very sharp. Besides, they were the ones who had come to stand near her.

"Oh, God, do I know that man."

"And Rey," Donna insisted stubbornly. A warm feeling blossomed in her belly. No one had ever stuck up for her like that before.

"And Rey," River added with a hard edge to her voice. "We go way back, him and me. Just not this far back."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"The Doctor hasn't met me yet. I sent him a message but it went wrong. It arrived too early. This is the Doctor in the days before he knew me. And he looks at me, he looks right through me and it shouldn't kill me, but it does."

Rey wasn't feeling her heart sink into her stomach. Her chest didn't seem to tighten and her lungs didn't constrict. She was getting over it; her fragile snowflake feelings were melting. The Doctor and the woman who loved him—it was only a matter of time before this happened.

"What are you talking about? Are you just talking rubbish?" Donna was getting angry now. "If you know him so well, you'd know that he and—"

"Donna! Quiet, I'm working," the Doctor, completely oblivious to the conversation, scolded.

"Sorry!"

"Donna? You're Donna? Donna Noble?" River's demeanor changed abruptly, looking at her with something akin to pity.

"Yeah, why?"

"I do know the Doctor. But in the future. His personal future."

"So why don't you know me? Where am I in the future?"

The Doctor got up before River could answer her. "Okay, we've got a live one! That's not darkness down those tunnels, this is not a shadow. It's a swarm. A man-eating swarm." He threw the chicken leg into the darkness. The meat was completely stripped off before it even touched the ground, the bare bone clattering noisily in the silence. "The piranhas of the air, the Vashta Nerada. Literally, 'the shadows that melt the flesh.' Most planets have them, but usually in small clusters. I've never seen an infestation on this scale, or this aggressive."

"What d'you mean, most planets? Not Earth," Donna argued, effectively distracted from whatever River had partially revealed.

"Earth included," Rey corrected. "Every world with meat also has Vashta Nerada. You can see them sometimes if you look. They're like dust in sunbeams."

"If they were on Earth, we'd know," she insisted.

"Nah, normally they live on roadkill," the Doctor explained. "But sometimes people go missing. Not everyone comes back out of the dark." His arm brushed against Rey's, a steady presence by her side.

She could feel River's eye on her back boring holes. "Every shadow?"

"No. But any shadow."

"So what do we do?" She had to hand it to her, River didn't panic when the situation took a turn for the worse. And she was working on getting them out, which was more than Rey could say about some of the others they had met on their travels.

"Daleks, aim for the eyestalk. Sontarans, back of the neck. Vashta Nerada? Run. Just run."

"Run? Run where?"

"Since we're at an index point, there should be an exit teleport nearby," Rey reasoned.

"Don't look at me," Mr. Lux said. "I haven't memorized the schematics."

"Doctor, Rey, the little shop," Donna suddenly exclaimed. "They always make you go through the little shop on the way out so they can sell you stuff."

His face broke out into a grin. "You're right. Brilliant! That's why I like the little shop."

"Okay, let's move it."

"Actually, Proper Dave," Rey asked, stopping him before he could get far. "Can you stay where you are for a moment?"

"Why?"

The Doctor had seen it too. "I'm sorry. I am so sorry. But you've got two shadows." All eyes looked to the ground. Two silhouettes of Proper Dave, angled at ninety degrees from one another, extended out from his feet. "It's how they hunt. They latch onto a food source and keep it fresh."

"What do I do?"

"You stay absolutely still, like there's a wasp in the room. Like there's a million wasps."

"We're not leaving you, Dave," River reassured him kindly.

"'Course we're not leaving him," the Doctor agreed. "Where's your helmet? Don't point, just tell me."

"On the floor. Near my bag." His voice wavered, heavy with fear.

Anita went to retrieve it. "Don't cross his shadow," Rey warned her.

The Doctor turned to address the others. "Now, the rest of you, helmets back on and sealed up. We'll need everything we've got." He carefully put Proper Dave's on for him.

"But Doctor, we haven't got any helmets," Donna pointed out.

"Yeah, but we're safe anyway."

"Lying to her isn't going to help," Rey scolded lightly. It was always better to know.

"We're not safe," the Doctor admitted. "That was a not-so-clever lie to shut you up. Professor, anything I can do with the suit?"

"What good are the damn suits," Mr. Lux demanded to know. "Miss Evangelista was wearing her suit. There was nothing left."

They ignored him. "We can increase the mesh density," River proposed. "Dial it up to 400%. Make it a tougher meal."

"Okay." He aimed the sonic at the port where Proper Dave's helmet and suit latched together. "800%. Pass it on." He held the screwdriver out for River.

"Gotcha." She held up one of her own.

Rey paled when she saw it. It wasn't just any sonic screwdriver, it was the one the Doctor's next regeneration used. The exact same one.

"What's that," he asked tensely, noting her reaction to it.

"It's a screwdriver," River answered simply.

"It's sonic."

"Yeah, I know. Snap." She began the upgrades on the others.

The Doctor grabbed Donna. "With me. Come on." He led them into the shop.

"What are we doing? We shopping? Is it a good time to shop?"

At the side, next to a podium, was a small dais with three small, round platforms. "No talking, just moving. Try it. Right, stand there in the middle." He pointed to the centre spot. "It's a teleport. Stand in the middle. Can't send the others, TARDIS won't recognize them."

"What are you doing?"

"You don't have a suit. You're not safe," he explained.

"You don't have a suit. Rey doesn't have one either. You two are in just as much danger as I am and I'm not leaving you."

"Rey's going right after you," he assured her.

"No I'm not," she told him, daring him to contradict her.

"I'm not leaving either," Donna protested.

"Donna, let me explain." Without another word the Doctor activated the teleport. "Oh, that's how you do it."

"That's what gets you hit," Rey told him. "If you try that with me, I'll just hack the TARDIS controls and come back." The kicked puppy look on his face made her waiver in her resolve a little, but she stood her ground. This business of shutting her out when things got dangerous was getting old. Life was always going to be dangerous, and there was no use denying that or trying to run.

Finally, he relented and they returned together to the rotunda. No one asked after Donna. Proper Dave's extra shadow was gone. "Where did it go?"

"It's just gone. I looked 'round. One shadow, see?"

"Does that mean we can leave," River asked. "I don't want to hang around here."

"I don't know why we're still here," Mr. Lux complained. "We can leave him, can't we? I mean, no offence."

"Shut up Mr. Lux."

"Did you feel anything, like an energy transfer," the Doctor asked Proper Dave. "Anything at all?"

"No, no, but look, it's gone." He turned in a circle to show them.

"Stop there," the Doctor commanded. "Stop, stop, stop there. Stop moving. They're never just gone and they never give up." He started sonicing the floor by Proper Dave's feet, but the single shadow left was just an ordinary shadow.

Rey looked uneasily at the dark visor of the spacesuit. There was one place the Vashta Nerada could move to where they wouldn't be noticed.

"Hey! Who turned out the lights," Proper Dave suddenly asked, affronted.

"No one," she told him. "The lights are still on."

"No seriously, turn them back on."

"They are on," River insisted.

"I can't see a ruddy thing."

"Dave, turn around."

"What's going on? Why can't I see? Is the power gone? Are we safe here?" He spasmed.

The Doctor extended an arm in front of her protectively. "Dave? Dave? Dave, can you hear me? Are you alright? Talk to me, Dave."

"I'm fine. I'm okay. I'm fine."

"I want you to stay still. Absolutely still."

"I'm fine," Proper Dave repeated. "I'm okay. I'm fine. I can't. Why can't I? I— I can't. Why can't I? I— I can't. Why can't I? I…"

Rey's eyes zeroed in on the light of his comm. It was blinking, the same way Miss Evangelista's had. The green bars should have been steady if the comm. was working correctly, which could only mean one thing. "He's ghosting."

* * *

 **Happy Holidays guys! I hate to leave you with a cliffhanger, but it's not really one... or is it? Guess you'll have to wait and see. Shout out to a helpful reader who messaged me about the link in my bio being broken. As always, feel free to yell at me about this fic or anything else. Here's hoping 2019 will be more productive!**


	17. Forests of the Dead

**AKA In Which People Are Not Like Photographs**

* * *

"If he's ghosting then why is he still standing," Mr. Lux demanded, voice strangled and shrill.

"Hey! Who turned out the lights? Hey! Who turned out the lights?"

The Doctor stepped towards him, ignoring the River's warning. "Dave, can you hear me?" Proper Dave just kept on repeating the same question. His arm shot out and he caught the Doctor by the throat. The movement jerked his head forwards so they could now see his exposed skull pressed up against the visor.

"Excuse me." River cut in, pulling out her sonic and zapping Dave's body back.

Now free, the Doctor scrambled away, pulling Rey with him. "Back from it," he called to the others. "Get back. Right back."

Proper Dave lurched towards them, movements jerky. "Doesn't move very fast, does it," River observed coolly.

"It's a swarm in a suit," Rey said, trying not to trip over any of the fallen books. "And that's not a bad thing."

"Oh, but it's learning," the Doctor warned. Four shadows stretched out beneath Proper Dave's feet.

"What do we do," Mr. Lux asked, panicked. "Where do we go?"

"See that wall behind you? Duck." Now that she'd thought of a way out, River's voice lost most of the stress it had been carrying. She pulled out a bulky blaster out of nowhere and shot at it. A perfectly square cut through.

"Squareness gun!"

"Everybody out," she ordered. "Go, go, go. Move it. Move, move."

They ran through the stacks for their lives, barely paying any attention to where so long as it was away from Proper Dave and the shadows. When they were far enough away that they couldn't hear Proper Dave's voice anymore the Doctor paused and tried sonicing a light fitting. The bulb was still lit, but the Library was getting progressively darker. "It doesn't stop them, but it slows them down," he explained.

"So what's the plan," River asked him. "Do we have a plan?"

"Your screwdriver looks exactly like mine," he said instead of answering.

"Yeah. You gave it to me."

"If I was gonna just give my screwdriver away, I'd give it to Rey. Not that she needs my permission to get it." He winked at her.

She blinked. By now she should've been used to him inappropriate segues, but it still caught her off guard from time to time. Most people reacted to being pickpocketed with irritation, but he always found her antics amusing. A small warmth blossomed in her chest, which she tried to tamp down on. This was hardly the time or place. Not to mention the elephant in the room.

"I wouldn't just give it to anyone."

River cringed at his callous statement. "I'm not anyone."

"Who are you," he asked.

"What's your plan," she shot back.

"I teleported Donna back to the TARDIS. If we don't get back there in under five hours, emergency program one will activate."

"Take her home, yeah. We need to get a shift on."

Rey didn't like the look on the Doctor's face as he examined the sonic. "She isn't there, is she?"

He shook his head. "I should have received a signal. The console signals me if there's a teleport breach."

"Well, maybe the coordinates have slipped," River suggested. "The equipment here's ancient."

He turned to a nearby node. "Donna Noble. There's a Donna Noble somewhere in this library. Do you have the software to locate her position?"

Rey gasped audibly in horror. The node spun around, a familiar face actualized on the headpiece. "Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved."

"Hey! Who turned out the lights," Proper Dave's remnant asked as he caught up to them.

"Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved."

"Hey! Who turned out the light?"

"Doctor, what are we gonna do," River asked.

Her question fell on deaf ears. The lights were going out and the shadows were quickly closing in on them.

"Hey! Who turned off the lights?"

"Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved."

"The wall," Rey prompted, seeing no other way out. Instinctually, she cringed at the idea of destroying all those books, but it was better than the alternative of all of them getting eaten.

River aimed at the wall to the left. Foregoing corridors and doors, they ran from room to room through the walls until they reached an area far enough away that was relatively safe.

For the moment, at least.

"This way, quickly. Move! Okay, we've got a clear spot. In, in, in! Right in the center. In the middle of the light, quickly. Don't let your shadows cross. Doctor."

"I'm doing it," he told her, ushering Rey into the room and starting the scan.

The haunting words of the node that had worn Donna's face echoed in her ears. Donna had to be okay. She _had_ to be. They had to be able to fix whatever had gone wrong with the teleport. To think otherwise just wasn't an option.

The room they were in was the mirror image of the reception room she, the Doctor, and Donna had been in earlier. Overhead, the full moon hung high, visible through the glass skylight. The sky was turning orange as sunset quickly came upon them. "We can't stay here for long we're losing the light."

"Have you found a live one," River asked the Doctor.

"Maybe. It's getting harder to tell. What's wrong with you?" He smacked the sonic against his palm.

"We're going to need a chicken leg. Who's got a chicken leg? Thanks Dave." She threw the meat Other Dave handed her. Like last time, it was stripped down to the bone before it hit the floor. "Okay. Okay, we've got a hot one. Watch your feet."

The Doctor went over to her, trying to look reassuring. "They won't attack unless there's enough of them. But they've got our scent now. They're coming."

"Oh, yeah, who is he," Other Dave, stressed and fed up, suddenly questioned. "You haven't even told us. You just expect us to trust him?"

"He's the Doctor," River said firmly. Just three words, but there was enough history behind them to fill the books in the room.

"And her?"

"She's Rey."

"Doctor who? Rey what?"

"The only story you'll ever tell, if you survive them."

"You say they're your friends, but they don't even know who you are," Anita insisted.

"Listen, all you need to know is this: I'd trust that man to the end of the universe. And actually, we've been."

"And her," Anita repeated. "It doesn't take a genius to see you don't like her."

River paused for a long while, face darkened by a troubled expression. "Rey is craftier than most people give her credit for. She— At the very least, the Doctor will work harder to get us out with her with us."

"They don't act like they trust you."

"Yeah, there's a tiny problem. He hasn't met me yet."

Well, that confirmed her suspicions that River was someone from the Doctor's future. Rey had to wonder if it was just bad luck that she hadn't run into her yet, or if there was another explanation. And why had no one mentioned her? The Doctor had told her about his people, about his family, about the Time War—what was it about River that he wanted to protect from even her?

No, she was getting ahead of herself again. In the end, Rey was just a friend, and the Doctor was under no obligation to tell her anything private. She should have been satisfied with what he had shared.

River left her group, walking over to the Doctor still examining his sonic. "What's wrong with it?"

"Another signal is interfering with it," she explained as he shook the screwdriver almost violently. "He can't figure out where it's coming from."

"Then use the red setting," she suggested.

"It doesn't have a red setting," Rey answered.

"Well, use the dampers."

"It doesn't have those either," the Doctor told her.

"It will one day."

He set down his sonic and took the one River had. "So, sometime in the future, I just give you my screwdriver."

"Yeah."

"Why would I do that?" He was asking both girls. Rey shrugged. Hell if she knew; she didn't even know how far in his future this gifting would take place.

River, in an attempt to sound amiable, remarked, "I didn't pluck it from your cold dead hands, if that's what you're worried about." It might have worked were this any other situation and she wasn't talking to the Doctor. For a man whose own life was the definition of non-sequential, and for all his pouting at spoilers, he really hated it when confronted by his own personal future.

"And I know that because?"

"Listen to me. You've lost your friend. You're angry, I understand—"

"No, you don't," he interrupted. "Two people are already dead, we don't know what happened to Donna, and you're the one who called Rey and me to a library filled with deadly, carnivorous shadows."

River didn't bother to correct him on the last part, but doubtlessly, the message was intended for him alone. "You need to be less emotional, Doctor. Right now…"

"Less em— I'm not emotional!"

"There are five people in this room still alive. Focus on that. Dear God, you're hard work young.

The corners of Rey's lips twitched downward. There were six of them in the room. River wasn't the type to make such an elementary mistake, so why had she miscounted? If she were a betting person, she would bet the person left out was her. There had to have been a reason other than just not getting along.

"Young," the Doctor echoed in disbelief. "Who are you?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Mr. Lux shouted. "Look at the pair of you. We're all going to die right here, and you're just squabbling like an old married couple!"

"Doctor, one day I'm going to be someone that you trust completely," River told him in earnest. "But I can't wait for you to find that out. So I'm going to prove it to you. And I'm sorry. I'm really, very sorry." She leaned in close and whispered something in his ear so softly that even Rey, standing right next to him, couldn't hear. "Are we good? Doctor, are we good?"

Stunned, it took a moment for him to respond. He looked at Rey, his emotions a mess and all too evident on his face. "Yeah, we're good."

"Good." River took back her screwdriver and walked away.

Rey kept silent, but he knew her well enough by now to notice the curiosity she couldn't keep off her face. The Doctor stood right in front of her, taking both her gloved hands. They were close enough that they were nearly pressed up against each other. His head was ducked, and if she straightened up her spine, her forehead would brush his. "God, I wish I could tell you. I could stop it before it even happens and you wouldn't have to…"

"Spoilers," she asked when he didn't finish.

He nodded. His breath was warm against her cheek.

They stayed like that for a beat longer until he pulled away and turned to address the rest of the group. "Know what's interesting about by screwdriver? Very hard to interfere with. Practically nothing's strong enough. Well, some hairdryers, but we're working on that. So there is a very strong signal coming from somewhere, and it wasn't there before. So what's new? What's changed? Come on! What's new? What's different?"

"I don't know," Other Dave said, grasping at straws. "Nothing. It's getting dark?"

"It's a screwdriver. It works in the dark."

"The cat and the fiddle," Rey recited softly.

" 'The cow jumped over the moon.' Exactly. See? Rey's got it. Moonrise. Tell me about the moon. What's there?"

"It's not real," Mr. Lux supplied. "It was built as part of the Library. It's just a Doctor Moon."

"What's a Doctor Moon," she asked.

"A virus checker. It supports and maintains the main computer at the core of the planet."

"Well, it's still active," the Doctor revealed. "It's signaling. Look. Someone somewhere in this library is alive and communicating with the moon. Or, possibly alive and drying their hair. No, the signal is definitely coming from the moon. I'm blocking it, but it's trying to break through."

"Donna!" An image of the woman flickered in the middle of the room. It was interrupted, like a bad data rendering not completely loaded. She looked fine, if not a little confused and see through. Then she vanished again as quickly as she appeared.

"That was her," River exclaimed. "That was your friend! Can you get her back? What was that?"

"Hold on, hold on, hold on." The Doctor fiddled with the sonic. "I'm trying to find the wavelength. Argh, I'm being blocked."

"Professor," Anita asked hesitantly.

"Just a moment."

"It's important," she insisted. "I have two shadows."

They all paused and turned to her. "Okay, Helmets on, everyone," River told the others. "Anita, I'll get yours."

"It didn't do Proper Dave any good," she pointed out miserably.

"Just keep it together, okay?"

"Keeping it together. I'm only crying. I'm only about to die. It's not an overreaction."

River put the helmet on her. Rey took the sonic from the Doctor. "I'm going to try something." She tinted the visor as dark as it would go.

"Oh, God, they've got inside," River breathed, horrified.

She shook her head. "I darkened her visor. They might think they're already inside and leave her alone."

"You think they can be fooled like that?"

She shrugged. It was a long shot, but it might buy them some time at least. None of the books said anything about the thought processes of the Vashta Nerada. Or how they communicated, for that matter. They lived in swarms, it wasn't like you could just walk up and ask.

"Can you still see in there," Other Dave asked.

"Just about," Anita confirmed weakly.

"Just, just stay back," the Doctor told her. "Rey, Professor. If I could have a quick word, please." He beckoned them over as far away from the others as they could get while still within the safety of the light circle, and crouched.

"What is it," River asked.

"There's six of us, right? Six of us still alive in the room?"

"So?"

"So why are there seven?"

Rey's eyes drifted over to the far side of the room a pair of legs clothed in white stood. "Hey! Who turned out the lights?"

"Run!" The Doctor grabbed her hand, pulling her along as he took off.

They ran back into the stacks, weaving down and through and, in one instance, over aisle after aisle of bookshelves. Somehow or another, they found themselves at a walkway between two buildings, high enough that the ground wasn't in sight.

"Professor, go ahead. Find a safe spot," the Doctor ordered. "Rey, go with her. I'm counting on you to keep her safe, River!"

"It's a swarm in a suit, Doctor, you can't expect to reason with it," she protested.

"It's never five minutes with you," Rey added. "Remember the not-robot king?"

"Spoilers," he chided.

"Not if you're too dead to live through it," she argued back.

River grabbed her by the arm. Her grip was like a vice, bruisingly tight with no give no matter how Rey struggled. And she did struggle. The suddenness and force of the touch had her reacting on reflex. She struggled to remember it was just River and not, say, the Madame dragging her back to Nevermore.

"Other Dave, you stay with him," River ordered. "Pull him out when he's too stupid to live. Two minutes, Doctor."

She dragged Rey along, and they plus Anita and Mr. Lux ran into the other building. They didn't stop until they reached a reading room near the center of the premises. Night had fully fallen by now, leaving them with only the Doctor Moon as a dim light source. When River finally let her go, Rey immediately stepped away, squatting and hugging her legs to try to stop herself from shaking.

 _This is real_ , she reminded herself, wondering what was wrong with her. She hadn't had a reaction this bad in a long while, especially in response to something so comparatively tame.

 _Hydrogen. Helium. Neon. Nitrogen. Oxygen…_

Rey took a few deep breaths, wiped the sweat from her face, and stood back up. Mr. Lux stared at her openly with wariness that bordered on skittishness. River used her sonic to check the shadows for more swarms. She kept glancing back at Rey discreetly, but not enough so that it wasn't getting on her nerves.

"Please stop looking at me like that," she finally snapped, too irritated and worked up to censor herself.

"I'm not giving you looks," River lied.

"You do it when you think no one is watching. If you can't decide whether to hate me or pity me, I'd prefer the former." She'd had enough of pity, of cautious looks like she was a cracked glass pane, one wrong touch away from shattering. Derision was better. People looked away from what they hated, and if they weren't looking at her she could pretend to ignore them back.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Silence elapsed between them, tense and heavy. Finally, when she had checked all the shadows she could reach, River set her sonic down and leaned against a table in faked casualness. "You know, it's funny. I keep wishing the Doctor was here."

"The Doctor is here, isn't he," Anita asked. "He is coming back, right?"

Softening a little, River smiled sadly. "You know when you see a photograph of someone you know, but it's from years before you know them, and it's like they're not quite finished? They're not done yet. Well, yes, the Doctor's here. He came when I called, just like he always does. But not my Doctor. Now, my Doctor, I've seen whole armies turn and run away. And he'd just swagger off back to his TARDIS and open the doors with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor in the TARDIS. Next stop, everywhere."

"You're in love with him," Rey realized. A blind person could have seen that River had strong feelings for the Doctor, but only a fool thought love was the only strong feeling a person could have. Until now, she hadn't been able to narrow it down enough to completely rule out the others.

"Yes," River said proudly.

"And you're clearly familiar with time travel."

"What's your point?"

"How can you be in love with him, but only a part of him?" Rey honestly wanted to know. If it was possible, maybe she could do it. Maybe she could pick out one tiny part of the Doctor, so small that no one would notice, and only love that part of him. Would that make her snowflake feelings melt faster, if they were all concentrated on one sliver?

Somehow, she felt like the answer was "no." Even if River explained, even if she read every instruction manual on it in the universe, it still wouldn't help.

"You talk about your Doctor like he's a different person. Like he's so much better. But the Doctor is the Doctor, no matter what regeneration. Isn't it not that he isn't finished, but rather that up until now you've only seen the sides of him that you wanted to see?"

She spoke too much. Rey was always saying too much. River's face contorted in anger. "What would you know? Stuck alone in your kingdom by the sea. Have you figured out what they call you yet? Or why?"

"Spoilers!"

The two whipped around to see the Doctor casually strolling up to them. He stopped by Rey's side and pressed a feather-light kiss to the crown of her head. The more things seemed to be taking a turn for the worse, the more affectionate he got. "See, told you five minutes."

"It's been twenty," she corrected.

"Five, twenty, po-ta-toe, po-tah-toe. Also, nobody can open a TARDIS by snapping their fingers," he said to River. "It doesn't work like that."

"It does for the Doctor," she insisted.

"I _am_ the Doctor.

She sniffed. "Yeah. Some day."

He ignored her and walked over to Anita. "How are you doing?"

"Where's Other Dave," Rey asked, noting that he was alone.

He winced. "Not coming, sorry."

"Well, if they've taken him, why haven't they gotten me yet?"

"I don't know." There were still two shadows beneath Anita's feet. "Maybe tinting your visor's making a difference."

"It's making a difference, all right." Her voice cracked. "No one's ever going to see my face again."

"Can I get you anything," he asked sympathetically.

"An old age would be nice. Anything you can do?"

"I'm all over it."

He was about to walk away when she stopped him. "Doctor… when we first met you, you didn't trust Professor Song. And then she whispered something in your ear, and you did. My life so far… I could do with a word like that. What did she say?" There was an empty pause as she waited for him to answer. "Give a dead girl a break. Your secrets are safe with me."

"Safe," the Doctor repeated.

"What?"

"Rey, what she just said, repeat it."

She blinked and faltered, caught off guard.

"I listen better when it's you," he quickly explained, motioning for her to get on with it.

"'Give a dead girl a break. Your secrets are safe with me.'"

"Safe! She said safe! You don't say saved, nobody says saved, you say safe. The data fragment! What did that say?" He pointed at her.

"'4022 people saved. No survivors,'" she recited.

"Doctor," River asked, not getting it.

"Nobody says saved. Nutters say saved. You say safe. But you see, it didn't mean safe, it meant… it literally meant… saved!"

"Saved as in…"

"Exactly!" He rushed to a terminal, frantically typing to get at the metadata. "See, there it is, right there! A hundred years ago, massive power surge, all the teleports going at once. Soon as the Vashta Nerada hit their hatching cycle, they attack. Someone hits the alarm, the computer tries to teleport everyone out."

River gaped. "It tried to teleport 4022 people?"

"Succeeded. Pulled 'em all out, but then what? Nowhere to send them, nowhere safe in the whole Library. Vashta Nerada growing in every shadow. 4022 people all beamed up and nowhere to go. They're stuck in the system, waiting to be sent, like emails. So what's a computer to do? What does a computer always do?"

"It saved them," Rey said.

He clicked his fingers. "The Library, a whole world of books, and right at the core, the biggest hard drive in history. The index to everything ever written, backup copies of every single book. The computer saved 4022 people the only way a computer can. It saved them to the hard drive."

And alarm blared, obnoxiously loud, echoing off the walls, and putting a damper on the improved moon. "What is it," Mr. Lux asked. "What's wrong?"

" _Autodestruct enabled in 20 minutes."_

"That's not good."

"What's maximum erasure," River asked.

"20 minutes, this planet's gonna crack like an egg," the Doctor explained.

"No," Mr. Lux shouted out. "No, it's alright, the Doctor Moon will stop it. It's programmed to protect CAL."

No sooner were the words out of his mouth that the information terminal screen went blank. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

"All Library systems are permanently offline," the automated voice stated. "Sorry for any inconvenience. Shortly…"

Mr. Lux paled considerably. "We need to stop this, we've got to save CAL!"

"What is CAL," Rey asked him again.

Seeing no other way around it, he finally gave in. "We need to get to the main computer. I'll show you."

"It's at the core of the planet," the Doctor supplied.

"Well then, let's go," River said excitedly. She aimed her sonic at the Library symbol set in the center of the room. It slid open smoothly with a deep growl. "Gravity platform!"

"I bet I like you," the Doctor wagered.

"Oh, you do," she assured him with a proud look on her face as they all stepped onto the platform and began to descend the levels.

It took them five minutes just to reach the lowest level. The data core was enormous, a sphere at least a three meters long of just microscopic memory banks. She could see how it managed to store away over four thousand people. A lone terminal stood in front of it.

"Help me." A girl's voice, the same girl from the information terminal Proper Dave accessed earlier, cried out from in front of the core. "Please, help me. Please, please, help me!"

"What's that," Anita asked as the voice continued to plead.

"What that a child," River asked.

"Computer's in sleep mode." The Doctor pressed a few keys. "I can't wake it up. I'm trying." The more he worked, the more the girl cried.

"Doctor, these reading," Rey pointed out.

"I know, you'd think it was… dreaming."

"It is dreaming," Mr. Lux told them solemnly. "Of a normal life, and a lovely dad, and of every book ever written."

"Computers don't dream," Anita protested.

"Help me. Please help me."

"No," he agreed. "But little girls do." He flipped a lever, opening a secret door. A lone node, smaller than the ones upstairs, waited in the next room facing the other direction. It turned slowly, revealing the face of the crying girl.

"Please help me. Please help me."

"Oh my God," River gasped.

"It's the little girl," Anita said. "The girl we saw in the computer."

"She's not in the computer," Mr. Lux told them. "In a way, she is the computer. The main command node. This is CAL."

"CAL is a child," Rey asked, horrified.

"Why didn't you tell me this," the Doctor asked. "I needed to know this!"

"Because she's family," Mr. Lux shouted. "CAL… Charlotte Abigail Lux, my grandfather's youngest daughter. She was dying, so he built her a library, and put her living mind inside, with a moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time, any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything. He gave her them all. He only asked that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show."

"You weren't protecting a patent," Rey realized. "You were protecting her."

"This is only half a life, of course. But it's forever."

"And then the shadows came." How terrifying it must have been. How it must still be.

"Shadows." Charlotte abruptly stopped calling for help. Her voice changed, still sad and scared, but also monotonous. "I have to… I have to save… have to save…"

"And she saved them," the Doctor said. "She saved everyone in the Library, folded them into her dreams."

"Why didn't she tell us," Anita asked.

"Because she's forgotten," he realized. "She's got over four thousand living minds chatting away inside her head, it must be like… being… well, me."

"So what do we do," Rey asked him.

" _Autodestruct in ten minutes."_

He smiled. "Easy! We beam all the people out of the data core, the computer will reset and stop the countdown." He frowned, suddenly realizing a problem. "Difficult: Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer." He smiled again. "Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer and she can borrow my memory space!"

"Difficult," River protested. "It'll kill you stone dead!"

"Yeah, it's easy to criticize."

"It'll burn out both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate," she continued.

"I'll try my hardest not to die," he promised. "Honestly, it's my main thing."

"Doctor!"

"I'm right and this works," he yelled back. "Shut up. Now listen, you and Luxy-boy, back up to the main library. Prime any data cells you can find for maximum download, and before you say anything else, Professor, can I just mention as you're passing air, shut up!"

River froze for a moment with her mouth opened. Eyes narrowed into a glare before she snapped it shut. "I hate you sometimes!"

"I know," he shouted back.

"Mr. Lux, with me! Anita, if he dies, I'll kill him!" She stormed out, Mr. Lux trailing behind. They took the gravity platform back up to the ground floor as the Doctor began working on the terminal.

Rey felt like something was stuck inside her, stopping her from breathing properly. Like an arrow, or a spear. "That's it," she asked. "Just like this?"

"I have to do this, Rey."

She stared at his back in disbelief. "But it'll kill you!"

"But it'll save you." He finally stopped and turned to look at her. "And Donna and all the others. This is the only way I can get you out safe. This time, it's my turn to keep you safe."

"What does that even mean? You always…" She shook her head. No, now wasn't the time to start down that road. "There has to be another way. Please, Doctor, don't do this. What do I have to say to change your mind?"

He shushed her quietly. Unprompted, she grabbed his hand as if she could transfer her own desire for his survival to him. Couldn't he see her desperation? He saw her better than anyone.

Or maybe he did. Maybe he just didn't care that his death would mean the end of her world.

His other hand came up, and he begun carding his fingers through her dark hair. It made her so angry that he could be so gentle to her with the same hands he was about to use to take his own life.

"What about the Vashta Nerada," Anita asked.

"These are their forests," the Doctor replied without moving away. "I'm gonna seal Charlotte inside her little world, take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content."

"So you think they're just gonna let us go?"

"Best offer they're gonna get," he said stonily, hand not stilling.

"You're gonna make 'em an offer?"

"They'd better take it, 'cos right now, I'm finding it very hard to make any kind of offer at all. You know what…" He finally looked away, eyes hard as they gazed on Anita's form. "I really liked Anita. She was brave, even when she was crying, and she never gave in. You ate her, and you're still not satisfied. You're trying to go after _Rey_." The shadows that had been inching towards them paused. He took a deep, shuddering breath. "But I'm gonna let that pass. Just as long as you let them pass."

"How long have you known," the swarm asked through Anita.

"I counted the shadows. You only have one now. She's nearly gone. Be kind."

"These are our forests. We are not kind."

"He's giving you back your forests," Rey said angrily, shaking with the force of the fury her body contained.

"But you are giving me them. You are letting them go." The Doctor pulled away and walked back to the terminal. She felt cold. Her hand, the one that had been holding his, hovered in the air where he'd left it and felt like ice.

"These are our forests. They are our meat." The shadows blackened beneath Anita's feet, creeping and reaching out once more towards them.

"Don't play games with me," he snapped. "You just killed someone I liked and you're threatening someone I care for, that is not a safe place to stand. In fact, you just threatened the Black Cat. I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look us up."

There was a pause before the shadows retreated. "You have one day."

"Anita!" The suit collapsed as River ran back inside.

"I'm sorry, she's been dead a while now," the Doctor said to her without turning around. "I told you to go!"

"Lux can manage without me. But you can't." Without another word, she walked over to the Doctor and punched him in the face.

He went down hard, crumpling like a wet leaf in the rain. The single hit had rendered him unconscious. "What are yo—"

River sprayed something in her face and the world went sideways. Pain raced through her body as she fell hard to her knees. Her body tilted forwards. She was only just able to get her arms in front of her in time to sort of cushion her fall.

Everything felt distant. Conditioned panic warred with artificial numbness, and unfortunately whatever drug River had just dosed her with was winning. She was moving through molasses. She was breathing underwater. Her thoughts were swimming.

"Thank god you hardly ever yell, otherwise you'd wake him." River started dragging the Doctor away. Rey, left where she had fallen, craned her neck to watch River drop him by a pillar and pulled out a pair of handcuffs from nowhere. When he was secured, she placed the blue journal next to him with the sonic balanced on top before turning back to continue working at the terminal.

Her mouth felt like she'd swallowed cotton balls. Her tongue refused to coopertate. "You're taking his place," she slurred.

River started attaching wires to a chair. She worked quickly and efficiently against the racing clock. The only thing that betrayed her nerves was the shaking in her shoulders. "Someone has to, and it can't be you. I can't let him die."

"River…"

"You know, I always thought I'd have more time. More time to get through to him, more time to convince him. More time to get it right. I was going to change it all—no more regrets. But I guess old habits die hard." She seemed finished with the chair and stepped back to survey her work.

The computer announced five minutes left on the countdown.

River glared at her, and Rey realized she had been wrong in her initial assumption. There was more behind River's attitude towards her than just "a girl with feelings for my man is always around him." This was resentment hardened with a bitterness so strong, she could almost taste it in her mouth.

She was suddenly struck with the thought that maybe it wasn't just the Doctor and River who had history with. Maybe it was River and herself too. Or would be.

"You're lucky you're not fully here, or it would be you in that chair instead of me. But as it is now, you're not compatible. A bit of advice: stay there. Stay in your kingdom by the sea, in your little room with your books. Don't try to get out."

The Doctor started to stir as River climbed into the chair. His unfocused eyes swept across the floor before snapping to full clarity as he met Rey's gaze. She looked towards River, directing his eyes that way.

" _Autodestruct in two minutes."_

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, come on." He tugged on the cuffs, taking a quick assessment of the situation. "What are you doing? That's my job!"

"Oh, and I'm not allowed to have a career, I suppose," she joked back, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Why are we handcuffed? Why do you even have handcuffs?"

"Spoilers!"

"This is not a joke," he scolded. "Stop this now, this is gonna kill you! I'd have a chance, you don't have any."

"You wouldn't have a chance and neither do I!" She took a couple of quick, calming breaths. "I'm aiming for the end of the countdown, there'll be a blip in the command flow. That way it should improve our chances of a clean download."

"River! Please! No!"

She ignored him and tried to smile. "Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean— I should've known right away something was wrong. You were acting so different, but I didn't want to see it."

A few tears escaped her eyes. She had her gaze fixed on the Doctor, was talking to him, but she was clearly seeing someone else in his place. "You turned up on my doorstep with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the singing towers. Oh, what a night that was! The towers sang, and you cried."

" _Autodestruct in one minute."_

"You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you know it was time. My time. Time to come to the Library. You even gave me your screwdriver—that should've been another clue, but I thought—I wanted to believe that it was your way of finally forgiving me."

The Doctor stretched for the sonic, but it was just out of his reach.

"There's nothing you can do," River told him, resigned.

"You can let me do this," he protested.

"If you die here, it'll mean I've never met you."

"Time can be rewritten."

"Not those times, not one line! Don't you dare! If you die here, who's going to find Rey?" She smiled bitterly when he didn't protest again. "It's okay. It's okay, it's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You and me, time and space. You watch us run!"

"River, what you said to me…"

" _Autodestruct in 10…"_

"That name you whispered in my ear…" He side-eyed Rey without truly looking away from River.

" _9… 8… 7…"_

"There's only one reason I would ever tell you to use that warning…"

"Hush now! Spoilers…"

" _3… 2… 1…"_

River plugged the two cables together with a smile so tender that it hurt to look at. A blinding white light flooded the room from the data core, and by the time the Doctor and Rey could see again, she was dead.

The drug eventually wore off, allowing Rey to finally get herself off the ground. Her legs barely supported her weight as she lugged herself over to the Doctor. Her hands shook so badly that she left deep scratches around the keyhole of the cuffs, and the lock ended up giving way more due to luck than anything else.

They took the gravity platform back up and found the Library floor filled with people. Donna found them not too long after, happy to see them but still mulling over her own adventure in the computer. She had lived an entire life in there, with a husband and children.

From the walkway, they watched over the crowd as 4022 people waited to be teleported out after a hundred years. When Donna asked, hesitant and sympathetic, both of them lied and said they were alright.

"Is 'alright' special space people code for 'really not alright at all?'"

"Why?"

"'Cos I'm alright too." She offered them a sad smile.

The Doctor balanced River's blue journal on the railing. Rey tried not to look at it, but she found her eyes drifting back to it shortly after every time she looked away. The cover was split into eight square panels, two columns of four in straight lines. In the right light, it would look just like the TARDIS doors.

"Your friend… Professor Song…" Donna began hesitantly. "She knew you in the future, but she didn't know me. What happens to me? Because when she heard my name, the way she looked at me…"

"Donna… This is her diary. My future. I could look you up," he offered. "What do you think? Shall we peek at the end?"

"Spoilers, right," she asked, remembering what he'd said when they first arrived. It felt like so long ago. Rey felt like a different person.

"Right," he confirmed. He put River's sonic on top of the book and left both of them where they were. "Come on. The next chapter's this way."

Halfway into her turn, Rey heard a clatter, a flutter, and a thud. She turned back to see the two items had fallen and, out of sentiment, went to pick them up. Even if no one would ever touch them again, it didn't feel right to just leave them on the floor.

The sonic was like a familiar friend, though the weight of it in her hand felt different. The spine of the book was worn and full of cracks. It had fallen open faced down, automatically flipped to a page in the middle that had probably been the most viewed one.

She hadn't meant to peek. Really, she hadn't. But when she picked it up, she caught a glimpse of the first page. There wasn't much on it, mostly blank space. The once white page was colored yellow from age. Her eyes nearly skipped over what was written on it if not for the little drawing at the corner.

Rey knew that drawing. She had sketched it a hundred times, whenever she was bored, when she felt mulish and wanted to lay claim to something. It was little more than a scribble, but it was enough to prompt her to scan the rest of the page.

There was only one thing written on the page. One unmistakable thing.

Under "Property of," was a familiar name.

Her name.

Quickly, she shut the book and put it on a nearby table. River said was her journal, but why did it have _her_ name on it? There had to be an explanation. Something simple, something she was overlooking.

She turned and hurried to catch up to the Doctor and Donna.

Later, once they were back in the TARDIS, back in flight, and back in the Time Vortex, she decided she was going to just ignore everything that was bugging her. She wasn't going to think about the future Doctor, about the journal, about River Song and whatever complicated relationship they were going to develop. She still believed that it was always better to know, but there were also things that couldn't be forced. She couldn't control how soon the future happened, all she could do was try to prepare herself for it when it finally arrived.

For now, she was just going to concentrate on this moment with the Doctor.

"We should have a code word," he said abruptly, ending the silence. Donna had retired to her room, claiming she deserved rest after living nearly a decade out in just a few hours.

"What for?"

"Just in case. What if there's ever a time one of us, probably you, can't explain but needs the other, probably me, to just trust them."

She made a soft sound, considering it. "It would have to be top secret."

"Oh, definitely." He grinned, getting more into it. "Something only we know."

"Any ideas?"

"One." He paused with a thoughtful look on his face. "It's something they used to call me in my youth, back on Gallifrey."

Even with her, he rarely spoke about his early life. Oh, he told her about his adventures, about his home planet and his culture, but he shied away from personal memories. Rey felt simultaneously honoured and floored at what she had done to deserve such a reveal.

"What did they call you," she asked, purposefully keeping her tone light.

He walked around the console to her, gently taking her hand in his, and whispered it softly in her ear.

"Theta Sigma." She tested it on her tongue, then quirked the corners of her lips upwards in her version of a smile. "I like it. Okay then, that's our secret. Just yours and mine."

* * *

 ***shows up two and a half months late with a meme from 2012* I'm back?**


	18. Bad Wolf

**AKA In Which the Reality in Reality Television is a Bit of a Misnomer**

* * *

She only had a moment's notice that she was jumping before the bed beneath her vanished. It had never happened while she'd been asleep before, and at first she hadn't been able to figure out what it was that jostled her from her REM cycle. Her eyes hadn't even opened all the way before she found herself landing in a crouch on a not very comfortable couch.

A stunned white man and black woman stared wide-eyed at her sudden appearance. A second woman was helping the Doctor up off the floor just outside a cupboard. "Rey!" He tried to rush over to her and ended up falling flat on his face in an uncoordinated flail of limbs.

She felt a surge of fondness and relief. A hint of dogged paranoia followed her around every time she jumped. Ever since that trip to New Earth—when she had first met Martha—Rey couldn't shake the fear that the Doctor wouldn't be there when she landed. Consequently, her heart did terrible things to her when she saw him, attempting to speed up and skip a beat at the same time.

"You alright," the woman, Lynda asked. He grunted, swaying on his feet when he rose, but managing to stay upright this time. "So! What'er your names, sweethearts?"

"The Doctor, I think. She's Rey. I was er… I don't know, what happened? How—" He looked to her for help. She shook her head, having no clue what was going on either. Last she knew they were still in the Time Vortex with Ace.

"You got chosen," Lynda explained with a nod and a grin like it all made sense.

"Chosen for what," Rey asked.

"You're housemates. You're in the house! Isn't that brilliant?!" She laughed, a significant amount of the happiness forced. There was also a little relief in her voice, a little rancor, and a smidge more worry.

"That's not fair," the man, Strood, protested. "We've got eviction in five minutes! I've been here for all nine weeks, I've followed the rules, I haven't had a single warning, and then they come swanning in."

"If they keep changing the rules, I'm gonna protest I am," Crosbie, the other woman, warned them. "You just watch me, I'm— I'm gonna paint the walls."

The house looked like a relatively normal living space if not for the listening devices scattered about and the cameras fixed to the ceiling. One of them turned slowly, zeroing in on the five of them.

"Would the Doctor please come to the Diary Room," an automated voice asked over the music. Behind them, the silver door buzzed as it opened. He exchanged a curious look with Rey before walking over and going inside.

She had the distinct feeling she was missing something. The setup of the house seemed too staged to be natural, and the camera meant that even if they weren't being watched, they were being monitored. "Nine weeks" and "rules" also pinged her radar, but she had no idea where to begin to figure them out.

The Doctor was in the room for all of five minutes before coming back out with a false smile plastered on his face. He told her that they were on a TV set—reality famous TV. Rey stared back in confusion. The only Big Brother she knew was the figurehead of a totalitarian government in a fictional world.

"Close. They throw a bunch of strangers together with a bunch of nonsense rules, monitor everything with cameras, and every week, someone gets voted off."

"Why," she asked.

He shrugged. "Why not? Humanity in a nutshell."

Conceding the point for now, they moved onto the next order of business: finding a way out. The Doctor tried the main door, but not even the sonic worked on it. "It's got a deadlock seal," Lynda explained. "Ever since Big Brother Five Hundred and Four when they all walked out…?"

Rey strode to the other side of the room, looking for anything that could be used as an exit. Even a window would do now so long as she could fit through.

"You _must_ remember that," Lynda insisted.

"What about this?" She gestured to the mirror.

"Oh, that's exoglass. You'd need a nuclear bomb to get through."

The Doctor scanned the edges for any weak points. "Don't tempt me."

Lynda leaned casually against the wall next to them. She hesitated for a moment, lowering her voice when she spoke. "I know you're not supposed to talk about the outside world, but you must've been watching. Do people like me? Lynda with a 'Y,' not Linda with an 'I'—she got forcibly evicted because she damaged the camera."

He nodded noncommittally, still focused on finding a way out.

"Am I popular?"

"I don't remember."

"Oh, but does that mean I'm nothing?" Lynda was genuinely worried, more so than a person should be over a television show. "Some people get this far just 'cos they're insignificant. Doesn't anybody notice me?"

He turned to face her properly, and she straightened up, beaming with wide eyes. Her earnestness was a little dismantling. He floundered for the right words to say, looking to Rey for help she couldn't provide. "No… you're… you're nice. You're sweet. Everyone thinks you're sweet."

She smiled, flattered. "Oh! Is that right? Is that what I am? Oh, no one's ever told me that before. Am I sweet? Really?"

Rey nodded stoically.

"Thank you!"

The Doctor glanced at one of the windows. It was sealed shut, just like the door, and the other side was a solid black. "It's just a wall—isn't there supposed to be a garden out there?"

"Don't be daft. No one's got a garden anymore. Who's got a garden?" Lynda gasped dramatically. "Don't tell me _you've_ got a garden?"

"It's Rey's," he mumbled, suddenly spinning around as a thought struck him. "I remember."

"That's the amnesia! So what happened? Where did they get you?"

"We'd just left Raxa—" He glanced at her.

She shook her head; still hadn't gotten around to that yet.

"—this planet," he corrected. "Then we went to Kyoto, that's right. Japan in 1336, and we only just escaped. We were together, we were laughing, Rey jumped, and then… there was this light… this white light coming through the walls, and then… And then I woke up here."

"Yeah, that's the transmat beam," Lynda explained. It must have been strong to scramble even the Doctor's brains. "That's how they pick housemates."

"Oh, Lynda with a Y… sweet little Lynda…" He turned to Rey, face grim. "We're not just passing travelers. No stupid little transmat gets inside my ship. That beam was fifteen million times more powerful, which means… this isn't just a game. There's something else going on."

"And we're going to find out," Rey confirmed.

"Well! Here's the latest update from the Big Brother house. We're getting out." He looked straight into the camera, pointing for emphasis. "We're gonna find our friends, and then we're gonna find _you_."

The problem was that it was easier said than done. They combed through the house systematically to find a way out, but everything was deadlocked or fake. Rey felt a little claustrophobic. She wished their prison looked more like a prison and less like a house. The Doctor also grew more and agitated by the second. His nerves were starting to leak into her, making her feel nervous too.

Realizing the effect he had on her, he made an effort to relax after the second time she jumped back at a harmless gesture. "Sorry."

They stood a little awkwardly apart. She wished she'd had more of a warning before jumping here. Not even Rey wore gloves to sleep. She had on only a thin long sleeved shirt and loose sweatpants; not much in the way of bundling up. It wasn't cold in the house, but she couldn't seem to get warm.

He shrugged off his jacket, holding it out for her. Not only was the inner lining warm from his body heat, the material was soft and sleek. She ran her fingers along it a few times before forcing herself to stop.

"Doctor, Rey, they said _all_ the housemates must gather on the sofa," Lynda repeated. She, Strood, and Crosbie were already in place. "You've got to."

"Busy getting out, thanks." He soniced another door.

"But if you don't obey, then _all_ the housemates get punished."

That did the trick. Grudgingly, he led Rey over to the purple sofa, pouting like a child. "Well maybe we'll be voted out, then."

"How stupid are you," Strood asked rudely. "You've only just joined, you're not eligible."

"Don't try anything clever or we all get it in the neck," Lynda advised.

"Big Brother House—this is Davina Droid." It was the same automated voice that invited the Doctor to the Diary Room. The three contestants, she didn't count herself and the Doctor among them, grabbed each other's hands.

"Crosbie, Lynda, Strood—you have all been nominated for eviction. And the eighth person to be evicted from the Big Brother House is… Crosbie!"

She gasped. All at once, Strood and Lynda were consoling her while also privately relishing in their own relief. They apologized and hugged. The Doctor rolled his eyes at the display behind their backs. Rey raised a brow in response.

"Crosbie, you have ten seconds to make your farewells, and they we're gonna get you!"

Talk about ominous. Ten seconds wasn't very long at all. How was she expected to get ready in time? Surely she had luggage that needed to be packed.

The three housemates rushed to their feet and to the door. "I won't forget you," Lynda promised.

"I'm sorry I stole your soap," Crosbie told her tearfully.

"Oh, I don't mind, honestly."

"Thanks for the food, you're a smashing cook." Strood kissed her cheek before hugging her again. "Bless you."

The front door unlocked itself and slid open now, revealing a small space on the other side. It was even smaller than the cupboard the Doctor had been tramsmatted to, gleaming white and with a door on the other side.

"Crosbie, please leave the Big Brother House," the Davina Droid said.

She looked terrified as she gazed into the room. "Bye then… Bye Lynda…"

"Bye…"

Lynda and Strood stood face to face. In what was probably a practiced ceremonial gesture, they created an arch with their arms for Crosbie to walk under. Once she was through, they waved at her until the doors slid close again. The image on the TV showed her waiting in the white room.

"I don't believe it," Lynda said, voice warbling with the force of her sadness. "Poor Crosbie…"

"It's only a game show," the Doctor said dismissively. "She'll make a fortune on the outside! Sell her story, release a record, fitness video, all of that… she'll be laughing!"

Lynda stared at him, uncomprehending. "What d'you mean, 'on the outside?'" Without waiting for him to answer, she and Stood ran back to the sofa. They settled on the edge nervously.

"Why haven't they let her go already," Rey asked. Reality shows confused her. Weren't they supposed to be realistic?

"Stop it, it's not funny," Lynda protested.

"Eviction in… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1!" A bolt of white light stuck Crosbie from above. In one moment she was there, and the next she wasn't, not a single trace of her left.

Rey froze. She had seen enough teleports to know that beam wasn't one. In fact, it looked more like...

"What was that?"

"Disintegrator beam," Strood sniffed.

"She's been evicted," Lynda explained tearfully. "From life."

"That's…" Horrible. Absurd. Monstrous. Rey was at a loss for words.

The Doctor sprang to his feet and began pacing. "Are you _insane_? You just step right into the disintegrator? Is it that important, getting your face on the telly? Is it worth _dying_ for?"

Lynda leapt to her feet to met him, fed up with his antics. "You're talking like we've got a choice!"

"Don't you have to apply for things like this," Rey asked.

"Don't be stupid," Strood said. "That's how they played it centuries back."

"You get chosen whether you like it or not," Lynda exclaimed. Her frustration at her own situation was finally leaking out. The fragile barrier keeping the brunt of her emotions back cracked almost audibly. "Everyone one Earth is a potential contestant. The transmat beam picks you out at random. And it's non-stop. There are 60 Big Brother houses running all at once."

"How many? _60_?"

"They've had to cut back," Strood added glumly. "It's not what it was."

"It's a _charnel_ house! What about the winners? What do they get?"

"They get to live," Lynda said plainly.

"That's it," Rey asked.

"Well, isn't that enough?!"

The Doctor stared at her for a moment. Abruptly, he grabbed her wrist and marched to the other side of the room. "Rose is out there. She got caught in the transmat. She's a contestant. Time we got out."

"Linda with an 'I' was forcibly evicted," Rey recalled.

"Damaged property," Lynda weakly reminded them.

"Like this?" Before the Doctor could try to talk her out of it, her hand shot out and plucked the sonic from his. She aimed it at the camera, using the resonance to fry it.

She had an idea, a little bit more than a hunch but not quite a theory yet. If the Doctor and Rose were brought here specifically, then chances were whoever did so wouldn't let them die so easily. Strood had said it when they first arrived—if they were proper contestants, they should've been brought here weeks ago. It might have been a long shot, and she needed some more evidence and time to think it through, but those were both things they were currently lacking in.

They shared a glance, and she could see that he had come to the same conclusion.

"The Doctor and Rey—you've broken the House Rules." The four of them sat back on the couch, waiting for the verdict. "Big Brother has no choice but to evict you. You have ten seconds to make your farewells, and then we're gonna get you!"

"That's more like it! Nice thinking, Rey!" He led her to the door, a faint twitch of his features the only thing betraying his nerves. "Come on then, open up!"

Lynda rushed after them. "You're mad! It's like you _want_ to die!"

"I reckon they're plants. They were only brought in to stir things up!"

The door slid open neatly. Up close, the white room was even whiter and more blinding than it was from afar. It reminded Rey of the isolation room in Nevermore. All that was missing were the padding on the walls and floor. And the straightjackets, the burning humiliation, the drugs to keep her complacent.

"The Doctor and Rey—please leave the Big Brother house."

Lynda hesitated while Strood raced back to the sofa. She shifted her weight on her feet as if readying herself to do something. In the end, the ten seconds were up and the door closed before she reached her decision. She turned back to the TV.

"Come on, then, disintegrate me! Come on, what'er you waiting for?" Despite his bravado, the Doctor still stood in from to Rey. It wouldn't do much against an actual disintegration beam, but she supposed it was the thought that counted.

Hesitantly, she reached out and placed a hand on his upper arm, unsure if it was for his comfort or her own. His other hand came up to clasp it, thumb slipping beneath the cuff of the jacket sleeve to drum lightly against her inner wrist. She temporarily lost the ability to breathe.

"Eviction in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…"

The generator let out a loud whine as the power failed. Just for a second, the lights flickered. Just for long enough that they would've been killed if everything went according to script. But otherwise, nothing happened. No death. No disintegration.

"I knew it! We knew it," he quickly corrected, giving her hand a final squeeze before letting go. "You see? Someone _brought_ me into this game. If they'd wanted me dead, they could've transmatted me into a volcano."

She pulled out the sonic and used it to examine the final door. As expected, the security on this door wasn't as strict. Likely, the designers had no reason to suspect anyone would use it to break out. The Doctor looked up at the camera and taunted whoever was at the other end while she worked. "Are you following this? We're getting out!"

The door swung open. A second later, the door that led back into the House followed suit. Lynda popped her head curiously through the clear doorway.

"Come with us," he offered.

She glanced back at Strood, who didn't move from the couch. "We're not allowed," he exclaimed pointedly.

"Stay in there—you've got a 50-50 chance of disintegration," the Doctor pointed out. "Stay with us—I promise I'll get you out alive. Come on!"

"No— I can't, I can't…" Despite her protests, Lynda took a small step forward.

"The Doctor was right. You're sweet. From what I've seen of your world so far, I don't think many people would vote for someone sweet," Rey told her honestly.

He held his hand out for her, letting her make her own decision. Lynda stared at it, took in a deep breath, and took it. The three of them left the house without looking back, stepping out into the main hall of Floor 56. Rey's subconscious registered and recognized the architecture nearly before her conscious mind could finish processing it.

"Hold on… We've been here before," the Doctor said. He turned his head every which way to take everything in.

"This is Satellite Five," she realized. Compared to how everything was near pristine on Floor 139, this hall was filled with signs of wear and tear. But it was definitely still part of Satellite Five.

There was a small maintenance room near the Big Brother House they had just left. She unlocked it with the sonic, allowing them to slip quietly inside, then handed the device back to the Doctor so he could take over and examine the control panel. "No guards. That makes a change. You'd think a big business like Satellite Five would be armed to the teeth."

They exited back into the corridor. "No one's called it Satellite Five in ages," Lynda told them as he tested the walls. "It's the Game Station now. Hasn't been Satellite Five in about a hundred years."

He checked his watch. "A hundred years exactly. It's the year 200,100. We were here before. Floor 139. Satellite Five was broadcasting news channels back then… had a bit of trouble upstairs. Nothing too serious. Easy—gave 'em a hand—home in time for tea."

Rey silently mused over as his simplified rundown of what had happened. The Jagrafess was hardly "a bit of trouble." She flashed back to what Rose had revealed to her after they'd dropped Adam off. She had jumped back to this Doctor plenty of times since, and so far, she hadn't attacked him yet. Some hopelessly optimistic part of her wanted to believe it was because she had changed things, but she wasn't so sure.

"A hundred years ago," Lynda asked dubiously. The Doctor placed his hand over a touch-sensitive pad linked to another door with no luck. "What, you two were here a hundred years ago?"

He tried with the sonic next. "Yep!"

"You're looking good on it…"

"I moisturize," he joked. "Funny sort of readings. All kinds of energy… This place is humming. It's weird. This goes way beyond normal transmissions. What would they need all that power for?"

Rey tried another door and was met with a similar lack of success.

"I dunno," Lynda said. "I think we're the first ever contestants to get outside."

"I had two friends traveling with me," he told her while scanning the door. "They must've got caught in the same transmat. Where would they be?"

"I dunno," she repeated. "They could've been allocated anywhere. There's a hundred different games."

Rey stiffened, turning to give Lynda her full attention. "Like what?"

"Well, there's ten floors of 'Big Brother.' There's a different House behind each of those doors. And then beyond that, there's all sorts of shows. It's non-stop. There's um… 'Call My Bluff…' with real guns… 'Countdown,' where you've got thirty seconds to stop a bomb going off… 'Ground Force,' which is a nasty one… you get turned into compost. Erm… 'Wipeout,' speaks for itself… oh! And 'Stars In Their Eyes.' Literally, stars in their eyes. If you don't sing, you get blinded."

She felt sick to her stomach. "You actually watch this stuff?"

"Everybody does." Lynda shrugged. "How come you don't?"

"Never paid for my license," the Doctor said offhandedly.

"Oh my God! You get executed for that!"

He took a protective step in front of Rey and held up the sonic like a weapon. "Let them try."

"You keep saying things that don't make sense. But who are you two though, Doctor? Rey? Really?"

"Doesn't matter." He brushed Lynda off, walking away to the next door.

"Well, it does to me… I've just put my life in your hands."

This door wouldn't budge either. They moved further along. "We're just travelers, wandering past. Believe it or not, all I'm after is a quiet life."

"So… if we get out of here, what're you gonna do? Just… wander off again?"

"Fast as I can."

She looked to Rey for confirmation, who nodded. The Doctor definitely had a tendency not to stick around. Oh, he came back and visited if he particularly liked a place or time, but if it was the same place it was never the same lifetime, and if it was a time it was never the same place.

"So… I could come with ya."

Lynda smiled nervously as the other two exchanged a glance. Rey shrugged—it was his decision to make. She didn't mind Lynda, and traveling with her wouldn't be a chore. Like the Doctor had said: she was sweet. "Maybe you could," he said.

"I wouldn't get in the way," she promised brightly.

"I wouldn't mind if you did. Not a bad idea, Lynda with a 'Y.'"

"We should focus on getting out first," Rey said, bringing them back on track. It was best to know the enemy—figure out if they could be reasoned with or, if not, if they had any weaknesses. "Who's in charge of the satellite now?"

"Hold on…" Lynda ran to the far wall and pulled a large lever. Lights flickered on, revealing that they had passed by a huge sign without even realizing it in the dark. The red and white letters were worn, dirtied by time and little upkeep, but they could still be read clearly.

BAD WOLF CORPORATION.

She suddenly remembered Gwenyth and what she had said to Rose. She remembered that Margaret had planned to use a variation of the name for her master plan and that Cathica had gestured to it in passing a hundred years ago. Two words, stretching across time and space, haunting them whenever they went.

"Your Lords and Masters," Lynda introduced.

Floor 56 had its own Observation Deck, just like the one on Floor 139 all those years ago. It also had an access point they could use to get into the system, so long as they could crack the firewalls. Outside the large window was the Earth, but it looked so wrong. Instead of the blue and white marble Rey remembered it as, it was almost entirely grey with pollution and smog.

Lynda marveled at the sight. "Blimey! I've never seen it for real before! Not… not from orbit. Planet Earth…"

"What happened to it," she asked, also unable to take her eyes away, but for an entirely different reason.

"Well, it's always been like that. Ever since I was born. See that there?" She pointed to a section to the right. "That's the Great Atlantic Smog Storm. It's been going twenty years. We get newsflashes telling us when it's safe to breathe outside."

"So the population just sits there," the Doctor asked in dismay. "Half the world's too fat, half the world's too thin, and you lot just watch telly?"

"Ten thousand channels, all beaming down from here."

"The human race. Brainless sheep. Being fed on a diet of… mind you, have they still got that program where three people have to live with a bear?"

"Oh, 'Bear With me,' I _love_ that one."

"And me. The celebrity edition here the bear got in the—"

"Got in the bath!"

Rey cleared her throat. "Doctor," she chided gently, reminding him that now wasn't the time for that. He shot her a sheepish look, rubbing the back of his head. "Last time, you said that history went wrong. But this isn't right either."

"Yeah. History's gone wrong _again_. This should be the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire—I don't understand. Last time we were here, we put it right."

Lynda shook her head. "No, but that's when it first went wrong. A hundred years ago, like you said. All the news channels—they just shut down overnight."

"But that was us. We did that."

"There was nothing left in their place. No information. The whole planet just froze. The government—the economy—they collapsed… that was the start of it. One hundred years of hell."

"Oh my…"

The sight of the Earth had sent Rey's heart to her stomach. Now, it was one the floor, flattened and ragged like it had been run over. "We did this," she realized.

Admitting it out loud was like a punch to the gut. It stole the air from her lungs and stung her eyes. It was their fault. They were responsible because they'd left and never thought back on what they were leaving behind. Leaving a single ruined life in their wake was bad enough, but they had left a ruined planet and not one of them had noticed.

She'd thought it. She'd thought about how their tendency to run and leave things finished but unresolved would bite them in the back someday. How naive and reckless she'd been to think that once more couldn't hurt.

"We have to fix it," she resolved.

A warm hand slipped into hers. She looked over to see the Doctor, grim but equally determined. "We will," he promised her.

The doors slid open and Jack sauntered into the Observation Deck like he was out for a Sunday stroll. He had his trademark jacket on, paired with his equally trademarked crooked grin. And she had never been more relieved to see him. "Hey, handsome! Beautiful! Good to see ya! Any sign of Rose?"

"Can't you track her down," the Doctor asked. Jack's vortex manipulator would be handier in this situation than the sonic. Without the TARDIS, they were grasping at straws.

"She must still be inside the games. All the rooms are shielded."

"If we can just get inside this computer…" He fiddled with the controls some more. The firewalls had definitely been upgraded since the last time they'd been here. "She's _got_ to be here somewhere."

"Well, you'd better hurry up," Jack urged. "These games don't have a happy ending."

"You think I don't know that," he snapped.

Jack slipped off his vortex manipulator. "There you go. Patch that in. it's programmed to find her." That taken care of, he turned and introduced himself to Lynda while the Doctor worked, injecting his usual charm in his voice as he did so. Part of it was forced—a habit and a comforting one now that they were in such dire straits.

"D'you mind flirting outside," the Doctor asked dryly without looking up.

"I was just saying hello!"

"That's flirting for you," Rey shot back.

"I'm not complaining," Lynda said with a smile.

Jack kissed her hand. "Which is a good idea."

The computer beeped, the sound low and flat to signal an error. "It's not compatible," the Doctor complained. "This stupid system doesn't make sense."

Rey took the manipulator from his hands before he could do something he would regret, like throw it against the wall in his frustration. With Jack's help, he pried off the terminal's front casing, exposing the wires and circuitry underneath. She handed him back the device wordlessly.

"This place should be a basic broadcaster. The systems are twice as complicated. It's more than just television… this station's transmitting something else."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. This whole Bad Wolf thing's tied up with me. Someone's manipulating my entire life. It's some sort of trap and Rose is stuck inside it."

The wait felt like it was taking forever. Rey was on her third cycle of rearranging the elements on the periodic table when the manipulator finally locked onto Rose's signature. "Found her," the Doctor exclaimed. "Floor 407!"

Lynda gasped. "Oh my God! She's with the Anne Droid! You've gotta get her out of there!"

They raced out of the observation deck, tearing down the corridors in search of the lift. It was a long way from Floor 56 to Floor 407. Too long, as it turned out. Once they were on the correct floor, there was still a matter of finding the right room. A robotic voice, the Anne Droid, rang out through the floor-wide intercom. Rose was trapped in "The Weakest Link," and they were on the final round of questions.

" _Rodrick, in physics, who discovered the Fifteen-ten Barric Fields?"_

"Game Room Six," the Doctor frantically shouted, drowning out its voice. "Which on is it?!"

"Here!" Rey led the way. All the floors were identical down to the position of the game rooms, and while the Doctor had been busy with the computer, she had been composing a mental map based on what they'd seen of Floor 56 and her memories of Floor 139.

Rodrick gave an incorrect answer.

The Doctor soniced the lock. "Stand back, let me blast it open, Jack offered.

"Can't. It's made of Hydra Combination."

" _Rose, in history, which Icelandic country hosted Murder Spree Twenty?"_

Rey yanked away the covering of the hand scanner. The wires were all the same colour, but it wasn't the colour that mattered, it was the placement. One of them controlled the hydraulics of the door, and it couldn't be too twisted in the mess of circuits or it wouldn't be secure enough. She plucked out the correct one and yanked it out.

The door slid open with a smooth _woosh_.

Inside, Rose was yelling and seconds away from being disintegrated. They burst in the room, but the stage was just too far away.

"Rose!"

"Rose, you leave this life with nothing," the Anne Droid announced.

"Stop this game," Jack demanded.

"I order you to stop this game!"

"We're live on air," the floor manager protested. He and the other staff tried to hold them back.

The Doctor ducked between the bodies and raced forward with the single-minded intention to reach Rose. Hearing the commotion, Rose shoved the podium in front of her away and ran towards them.

"You are the weakest link," the Anne Droid declared.

"Look out for the Anne Droid," she warned. "It's armed!"

It didn't happen in slow motion like one would expect. It was all realistically, frustratingly, horrifically fast. The Doctor and Rose were running, the Anne Droid's head swiveled, its jaw dropped down. The disintegrator beam, blindingly bright and as white as snow, hit Rose squarely in her back.

She screamed, and then she was gone.

The Doctor stumbled over the last few steps and kneeled at the spot Rose last was. The small whiff of smoke quickly cleared, and only a pile of dust left behind. He was unnaturally still, deaf and dumb to the commotion behind them. Jack threatened the floor manager while the staff finally called security. Lynda was crying, her voice coming out in shuddering wails.

Rey was frozen. She had no frame of reference for what to do next. Rose… All those times they met in the future, the burgeoning accord that was slowly developing into friendship—that couldn't be gone now, could it?

Security guards charged the room, restraining Jack and Lynda. Another grabbed Rey, wrapping his meaty hands around her upper arms before yanking them back and nearly out of their sockets. She almost wished that he had. Dislocated shoulders weren't so foreign to her, not like this. She knew how much they hurt, and right now she wanted that pain. Better something physical to gulf the crushing shame she felt. Why wasn't she faster? She could have ran faster, opened the door faster, helped find Rose faster.

"I'm arresting you under Private Legislation 16 of the Game Station Syndicate."

The guards dragged all four of them to containment. The Doctor was like a doll, unreactive even when he was roughly slammed again a chain-linked gate and searched. He didn't even move a muscle when the guards took away the sonic. Once they were stripped of anything that could be a weapon, they were escorted to a cell to be interrogated. The Doctor, Jack, and Lynda sat on the provided bench while Rey leaned back against the chain-linked fence next to them.

"Can you tell us how you got on board," a guard asked.

"Just leave him alone—"

He grabbed Lynda's chin to keep her from saying more, spitting out, "I'm asking _him_ ," before practically throwing her away. "Sir? Can you tell us who you are?"

No answer.

Their pictures were taken from the front and sides. The flash seared her eyes, but it was nothing compared to the way the disintegrator beam's blinding light. Rey could still see the white starburst behind her eyelids. One of the guards cracked a joke about her face and short stature before leading her back into the cell.

"You will be taken from this place to the Lunar Penal Colony, there to be held without trial. You may not appeal against this sentence. Is that understood?"

When it became clear he would get no response, the guard scoffed and turned back to leave. "Let's do it," the Doctor decided as he opened the gate.

In one fluid motion, the four of them moved. Jack forced his way out, punching and kicking the guards that tried to contain them. Rey weaved through the chaos, tripping one man that was charging at her, while Lynda kept a couple distracted so Jack could swiftly knock them out from behind. The Doctor threw a guard easily against the wall in a show if hidden strength. When all their opponents were down, they each grabbed a weapon.

A klaxon was left ringing in their wake as they rode the lift up. Some things never changed—it may have been cleared of ice, but Floor 500 was still the command center of the conspiracy.

"Okay! Move away from the desk," Jack ordered as they stepped out of the lift, guns are the ready.

When it came to weapons, Rey wasn't as pacifistic as the Doctor. She'd been seven the first time she tased a guard in an escape attempt, and it hadn't felt as bad as she thought it would. But that was why weapons were so dangerous. They made you feel strong and made you forget that there was someone else hurting on the other end.

"Nobody try anything clever. Everybody clears! Stand to the sides. And stay there."

The staff scurried to obey him. The Doctor ignored them all and headed straight for the Controller. She was housed in a cylindrical glass container in the center of the room, physically hooked up to the system through wires embedded in her skin.

"Who's in charge of this place," he demanded to know, holding up the defabricator threateningly.

"…18… 19… 20…" The Controller kept counting and didn't answer.

"This Satellite's more than a Game Station."

"79…"

"Who killed Rose Tyler?"

"All staff are reminded that solar flares—"

"I want an answer!"

"—in delta.1."

"She can't reply," one of the programmers, Davitch, said in a small voice. The Doctor whirled around, swinging the gun widely as he went. A lot of flinches and a few prayers dotted the crowd. Even Jack winced at the improper and dangerous handling. "Don't shoot!"

"Oh, don't be so thick. Like I was ever gonna shoot." He tossed the defabricator to the other man.

"Jack, they'll be sending more guards up here. Can you secure the exits," Rey asked. She tucked her own gun into the inner pocket of the Doctor's jacket and wished she was wearing one of her jeans that had bigger on the inside pockets. It was hard to look threatening in your pajamas.

"Yes, sir!" Jack saluted and went off.

"You—what were you saying," the Doctor asked Davitch.

"But… I've got your gun."

"Okay, so shoot me."

"Don't shoot him," she interjected, walking around so she stood next to the Doctor. Davitch flinched as she trained her unwavering gaze on him.

Correction: it was hard to look threatening in your pajamas unless you were just naturally good at putting people off.

"Why can't she answer," the Doctor asked again.

"She's, um… can I put this down?" Davitch glanced down at the gun.

"If you want, just hurry up."

He all but dumped it in the nearby chair. "Thanks. Sorry. Um… the Controller is linked to the transmissions. The entire output goes through her brain—you're not a member of staff so she doesn't recognize your existence."

"What's her name," Rey asked, glancing back at her.

"I don't know. She was installed when she was five years old. That's the only life she's ever known."

"Door's sealed," Jack reported. "We should be safe for about ten minutes."

"Keep an eye on 'em," the Doctor commanded.

"But that stuff you were saying about something going on with the Game Station," Davitch continued, unprompted. "I think you're right. Unauthorized transmits… it's been going on for years."

"Show us."

"Solar flare activity at delta.0…"

"If you're not holding us hostage, then open the door and let us out," one of the female programmers, Nisha, demanded. "The staff are terrified."

"That's the same staff who execute hundreds of contestants everyday—"

"That's not our fault," she interrupted. "We're just doing our jobs."

"And with that sentence, you just lost the right to even talk to me. Now back off." The Doctor glared at her, voice heavy with disgust. Lynda actually flinched at his tone.

All at once, the lights flickered. The terminal screens started to display static, accompanied by the sound of machinery winding down. "That's just the solar flares," Davitch dismissed. "They interfere with the broadcast signal, so this place automatically powers down. Planet Earth gets a few repeats. It's all quiet normal."

"Doctor…"

Rey tugged on his sleeve and nodded her head to the Controller. He spun to look at her before they both hurried over to the other side of them room. Still wired in, the Controller couldn't move an inch from inside the glass. She stared straight ahead with blind eyes.

"Doctor… Doctor… Where are the Doctor and his Rey?"

"We're here," he assured her.

"Can't see. I'm blind. So blind. All my life, blind. All I can see is numbers, but I saw the two of you."

"What do you want?"

"Solar flares hiding me. They can't hear me— my— my masters, they always listen but they can't hear me now. The sun… the sun is so bright…"

"Who are your masters," Rey asked. Who was in charge of the Bad Wolf Corporation?

"They wired my head," the Controller explained. "Their name is forbidden. They control my thoughts, my masters… my masters, I had to be careful. They monitor the transmissions but they don't watch the programmes. I could hide you inside the games."

"Our friend died inside your games," the Doctor told her coldly.

"Doesn't matter."

"Don't you _dare_ tell me that."

The Controller continued as if he hadn't spoken. "They've been hiding. My masters, hiding in the dark space, watching and shaping the Earth… so, so, so many years… they've always been there. Guiding humanity, hundreds and hundreds of years—"

"Who are they," the Doctor asked.

"They wait. They plan and grow in numbers, they're strong now. So strong, my masters—"

"Who are they," he repeated, almost desperate.

"But they speak of you. My masters, they fear the Doctor."

"Tell me! Who are they?"

The Controller gasped. The lights stopped flickering and brightened as the power wound back on. She was back to counting again, unresponsive. "20… 21… 22…"

"When is the next solar flare," Rey asked.

"Two years' time," Davitch answered solemnly.

"Fat lot of good that is," the Doctor complained.

Jack bounded back into the room nearly vibrating with excitement. "Found the TARDIS!"

"We're not leaving now."

"No. but the TARDIS worked it out. You'll wanna watch this." He nudged Davitch out of his seat before pointing to an open space. "Lynda, could you stand over there for me please?"

"I— I just wanna go home," she said miserably.

"It'll only take a second. Could you stand in that spot, quick as you can?" Hesitantly, Lynda obeyed. "Everybody watching? Okay… three, two one—" He pressed a button, activating the disintegrator beam. It shot down from the ceiling, hitting Lynda.

"But you killed her," the Doctor gasped.

"Oh, d'you think?" Confidently, with just a smidge of cockiness, Jack hit the same button again.

In another flash of light, Lynda rematerialized next to the Doctor. She was a little dazed, a little confused, but otherwise completely alright. "… What the hell was that?"

"It's a transmat beam," Jack explained. "Not a disintegrator—a secondary transmat system." He abandoned his station and walked towards them. Next to her, the Doctor was finally shaking out of his cold, frozen fury as realization dawned. "People don't get killed in the games! They get transported across space! Rose is still alive!"

He laughed, the relief so overwhelming it left him nearly hysterical. Turning, he took Rey into his arms, lifting her up and swinging her around. Setting her down, he threw his arms around Jack next, sharing a mad grin. Even Lynda heaved a giant sigh.

As soon as he was done celebrating, the Doctor was on the move again, dashing from console to console to start a search. "She's out there somewhere!"

"Doctor!" It physically hurt the Controller to talk, that much was evident by the way her face contorted and the aborted way her words came out. Rey felt a phantom ache beneath her skin in response. "Coordinates 5.6.1—"

She started typing them into the terminal. "Don't," the Doctor protested. "The solar flare's gone, they'll hear you!"

".434— No, my masters, no! I defy you! Sigma 77—"

She screamed. In a flash of light, she was gone. The wires that had connected her to the Satellite's mainframe fell limply, and in the empty space where she once stood was only smoke and dust.

"They took her," Rey said sadly.

Jack took a seat next to her, and the others gathered around her terminal. The partial coordinates had narrowed down the possible locations considerably, but without the rest, they would still be flying blind. Davitch came up to them and handed over a disk. "Look, use that. It might contain the final numbers. I kept a log of all the unscheduled transmissions."

"Nice… thanks…" Jack held his hand out for the other man to shake, eyeing him with clear interest. "Captain Jack Harkness, by the way…"

"I'm Davitch Pavale."

"Nice to meet you, Davitch Pavale…"

"There's a time and a place," the Doctor scolded.

"Are you saying this entire set-up's been a disguise all along," Nisha, still unwilling to believe it, asked.

"Going way back. Installing the Jagrafess a hundred years ago. Someone's been playing a long game. Controlling the human race from behind the scenes for generations."

Rey clicked the strike key, projecting the hologram up above their heads. The expanse of space looked empty, like another dead end. "The transmat delivers the contestants there. Right on the edge of the solar system."

"There's nothing there," Nisha pointed out.

She shook her head. "It only looks like nothing. Satellite Five broadcasts a continuous signal that's hidden beneath the game transmissions."

"Doing what," Davitch asked.

"Hiding whatever's out there," the Doctor answered. "Hiding it from sonar, radar, scanner… There's something sitting right on top of Planet Earth… but it's completely invisible. If I cancel out the signal…" He reached over to get the controls.

A few key strokes and the empty space was no longer empty. There was a spaceship shaped like Saturn, then five, ten, a hundred…

Rey's blood went cold. She knew those ships; would recognize them anywhere. A person would have to be suffering from total retrograde amnesia to ever forget them. And even then, she suspected that they would know, on some subconscious level, that this was something to be feared.

"That's impossible," Jack breathed. "I know those ships… they were destroyed."

"Obviously, they survived," the Doctor said flatly.

"Who did," Lynda asked. "Who are they?"

"Two hundred ships. More than two thousand on board each one. That's just about half a million of them."

"Half a million what," Davitch asked.

Rey answered. "Daleks."

The hologram flickered. No longer were they gazing at the fleet, but the interior of the flagship now. Rose stood precariously behind a Dalek. Another two were behind her, their gunstalks trained at her back. "I will talk to the Doctor," the first announced in its shrill voice.

"Oh, will you? That's nice. Hello!" He gave a mock wave. Rey reached for his sleeve, her hand shaking.

Quickly, his false cheer faded.

"The Dalek Stratagem nears completion. The Fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene."

"Oh, really? What's that then?"

"We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated."

"No," he said firmly, to everyone's surprise. His fingers twitched, grip tightening momentarily. Something stirred in Rey's chest. The same thing that always caused her heart rate to quicken a little when they were about to take off on another trip.

"Explain yourself," the Dalek demanded.

"I said 'no.'"

"What is the meaning of this negative?"

"It means 'no."

"But she will be destroyed," the Dalek protested. Clearly, they hadn't anticipated the Doctor's unpredictability.

"No! 'Cos this is what I'm gonna do—I'm gonna rescue her. I'm gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek Fleet, and then I'm gonna save the Earth, and then just to finish off, I'm gonna wipe every last _stinking_ Dalek outta the sky!"

"But you have no weapons," it protested. "No defenses! No plan!"

He grinned. "Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death? Rose?"

"Yes, Doctor," she answered eagerly, the large grin on her face threatening to split the corners of her lips.

"I'm coming to get you."

* * *

 **Golly, I wonder what's going to happen next?**


	19. The Parting of the Ways

**AKA In Which This Is Not The End**

* * *

Piloting the TARDIS was like participating in an extreme sport most days. In the Olympics. Without knowing all the rules because someone got cross and threw them out. And before the Doctor asked, no, she wasn't going to get over that.

On days like this, with a Dalek Fleet to break into, a rescue to mount, and humanity to help out, piloting the TARDIS was like one of those daredevil stunts no sane person attempted. Add in missiles, and even the worst adrenaline junkie would be hard-pressed to feel something was lacking. And speaking of missiles…

"We've got incoming," Jack warned.

There were two headed for them right now.

They impacted on either side of the TARDIS, exploding with a show of orange flame. The console room barely jostled from the shockwave. If Rey didn't know any better, she would think it was just ordinary turbulence.

"The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional forcefield. Try saying that when you're drunk…"

"And for my next trick," the Doctor said, twisting a set of knobs. The router whined as he began the dematerialization process, fixed on Rose's position as their destination. She slowly faded into view as they landed, the TARDIS materializing around her. One of the Daleks was caught with her.

"Rose," he yelled. "Get down!" She floundered for a moment. The Dalek's eyestalk swung around to fix on them. "Get down, Rose!"

She hit the ground just as it yelled out, "Exterminate!"

It fired on Jack, who used the side of the defabricator to deflect the shot. The beam bounced off the chamber right back at the Dalek, causing it to explode with a scream. Bitter smoke drifted from what was left of its metal shell. Rey coughed and stepped towards it.

"You did it," Rose cheered. The TARDIS fell quiet, finally a lull in the excitement. Wordlessly, the Doctor went up to Rose and pulled her into a tight hug. "Feels like I haven't seen you in years."

"Told you I'd come and get you," he reminded her.

"Never doubted it."

"I did!" He pulled away, finally, finally back to his normal self. "You alright?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Not bad. Been better!"

"Hey, don't I get a hug?" Jack playfully pouted. He and Rose embraced, squishing their cheeks together. "I was talking to him," he joked, gesturing to the Doctor. It earned him a chuckle and the Doctor joined in, throwing his arms around them so they were in a three-way hug.

"Welcome back," Rey said softly, a little hesitantly. The brief, strained smile Rose gave her was all she needed to know that whatever reconciliation they might've had in store hadn't happened yet. Still, Rey was glad Rose was alright.

The relief of safety made Rose soften a little. "Good to be back."

"You were lucky," Jack told her. "I was just a one-shot wonder. Drained the gun of all its power supply. Now it's just a piece of junk."

The Doctor walked over to examine the destroyed Dalek with the sonic. Rey joined him, urged on by morbid curiosity. She had never seen one this close before, and she'd certainly never seen inside. The shell was just a chamber, used to house the mutated being inside.

"You said they were extinct. How comes they're still alive," Rose asked.

"One minute they're the greatest threat in the universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space," Jack added.

"They went off to fight a bigger war… the Time War…" She glanced at the Doctor. He never did take references to that time of his life well.

Jack's eyes widened. "I thought that was just a legend."

"I was there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords. With the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it," he added quietly, expression full of grief and regret. "Now it turns out they died for nothing."

"There's thousands of them now," Rose told them. "We could hardly stop _one_. What're we gonna do?"

"No good stood 'round here chin-wagging," he said with false bravado. "Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers—let's go and meet the neighbors."

Rey followed him down the ramp. His shoulders were tight, betraying the front he put on for Rose and Jack. He didn't ask if she knew this would happen. She hadn't, but that was beside the point. He never asked her questions like that. Never blamed her.

"You can't go out there—"

He ignored Rose's warning, opened the doors, and stepped out.

"Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!" The chorus of shouts were the only warning they got before the foremost group of Daleks fired. The TARDIS's force field, extended about a half a meter beyond the actual walls, kept them safe.

Realizing that it wasn't doing anything, the gunfire stopped.

The Doctor raised his hands mockingly. One of them came up right in front of Rey's face. "Is that it? Useless! Nul points!"

She knocked his arm down. "It's alright," she said to Jack and Rose. "The force field can hold back anything."

"Almost anything," Jack corrected.

She twitched. "Let's not give away our secrets to the enemy."

"Sorry."

The Doctor stepped forward to address the Fleet. "D'you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions… but I reckon that right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left. And that's fear." A few eyestalks shifted at his words. "Doesn't it just _burn_ when you face me? So, tell me—how did you survive the Time War?"

"They survived through me."

One Dalek stood apart from all the others. It was huge, towering over them, and illuminated by a spotlight to denote its importance. Even the Doctor stared up at it, slack-jawed with awe. "Rey… Rose, Captain… this is the Emperor of the Daleks."

"You destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive."

"I get it," he said softly.

"Do not interrupt," a Dalek shrieked. The phrase was repeated by a second, then a third.

The volume and shrill made Rey want to wince. It was elementary as far as intimidation tactics went, but it was also effective. She felt like tarantulas were crawling over her skin, or like itching power had been rubbed into her clothes. She hated how the screamed. They always screamed. Every word a Dalek shouted was full of hatred, rage, and pain.

The Doctor looked mildly annoyed. "I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor. And if there's one thing I can do—it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So if anybody's gonna shut up, it's _you_!" The front row reared back at the intensity of his words. Satisfied, he turned back to address the Emperor again. "Okey-doke. So, where were we?"

"We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth. Harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed—they all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted."

A lump found its way to her throat. The Emperor was talking about people—people with lives and friends and hopes. _That_ was what he used to rebuild his race.

"The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured."

"So, you created an army of Daleks out of the dead," the Doctor concluded.

"That makes them… half human," Rose said, setting off another round of outrage.

"Those words are blasphemy," the Emperor decreed.

"Do not blaspheme! Do not blaspheme! Do not blaspheme!"

"Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Daleks."

Horrified, the Doctor looked around in dismay. "Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?"

Behind her, Rose shifted and whispered, "I don't get it. Why is that bad?"

"Daleks can't have religion," Rey answered. "They hate everything that's different, and that includes divinity." It went against everything they were. You couldn't have a Dalek deity unless you considered all Daleks deities. It was all or nothing for them.

"I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of all Daleks," the Emperor declared

"Worship him! Worship him! Worship him!"

"They're insane," the Doctor realized. "A hundred years hiding in silence—that's enough to drive anyone mad."

She gazed on at them. There were no facial expressions to interpret or bodily reactions to take in, but she could still hear their voices. That was enough, apparently, to _see_ a Dalek. "It's not just the silence," she added softly. The temptation to hide her face in his shoulder was nearly overwhelming. She didn't want to hear or see anymore. "They can't help but hate themselves."

"That makes them more deadly than ever," the Doctor realized. "We're going."

"You may _not_ leave my presence," the Emperor bellowed. They ignored him as they made their way back inside the TARDIS. Behind them, the Daleks fired uselessly.

Behind the closed doors, with his back to the others, the Doctor took a moment just to think. And mourn. Whatever act he had put on earlier, he was vulnerable now that the audience was whittled down to his closest friends. He leaned his head against the wood, eyes squeezed shut as the battle cries outside rang in his ears.

Then he was back in action, piloting them back to Floor 500 of Satellite Five. Lynda looked relieved to see them, and even happier to see that they had successfully retrieved Rose. "Turn everything up," he ordered in lieu of a greeting. "All transmissions, wide open, full power. Now! Do it!"

"What does that do," Davitch asked even as he rushed to obey.

"It stops the Daleks from transmatting directly on board," Rey explained. "Did you manage to contact Earth?" They had left him with clear instructions to send out a warning before they left.

"Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programmes."

"And the planet's just sitting there, defenseless," the Doctor spelled out. "Lynda, what'er you still doing on board? We told you to evacuate everyone," he scolded Davitch.

"She wouldn't go," he explained.

"Didn't wanna leave ya," she explained with a sweet smile.

"There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here," Nisha said. The floor was deserted apart from those three. "We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."

"Oh my God," Davitch gasped, double checking the screen. "The Fleet is moving. They're on their way."

An idea must have occurred to the Doctor because he started urgently ripping handfuls of wires out of the stations. Jack glanced at Rey, but she had no clue what he was planning. Rose was alternating between watching the Doctor and giving Lynda strange looks as she tried to decipher her.

"Dalek plan—big mistake," he said, speaking quickly and not bothering to take the time to properly address them. "Because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on—it's obvious. A great big transmitter—this station. If I can channel the signal, fold it back, sequence it—anyone?"

"You've gotta be kidding me," Jack said incredulously.

"Give the man a medal!"

"You're going to build a Delta Wave," Rey asked uncertainly.

"I'm going to build a Delta Wave," he confirmed with a grin.

"What's a Delta Wave," Rose asked.

"A wave if Van Cassadyne energy," Jack explained excitedly. "Fries your brain—stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed!"

"And this place can transmit a _massive_ wave," the Doctor added. "Wipe out the Daleks!"

Rose opened her mouth to speak only to be unintentionally cut off by Lynda. "Well, get started and do it then!" Her mouth clicked shut as she shot the other woman a glare.

"Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about—ooh—three days? How long till the Fleet arrive?"

Rey checked the screen. "22 minutes. Conservatively." He started pulling out cables faster, beaming at them.

Jack sat at another terminal and began the sequence to activate the Satellite's force field. Normally, it was used to deflect asteroids and other space debris, but a little illegal rewiring and coding, and he managed to strengthen it so the Fleet couldn't just blast them out of the sky. "But that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading," he added.

"Do they know about the Delta Wave," Davitch asked.

Rey nodded. "They would have worked it out at the same time."

"If they want to stop the Doctor, that means they've got to get to this level—500." Jack pulled up a diagram of the Satellite on the screen. "Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels, 500 to 495. So, they'll penetrate the station below that at level 494 and fight their way up."

"Who're they fighting," Davitch asked uneasily.

"Us."

"And… what're we fighting with," he asked next

"The guns the guards were armed with had bastic bullets. If you concentrate on the eyestalk where the shielding is weakest, you can pierce Dalek armour," Rey explained.

"There's _six_ of us," Nisha stressed.

"Rey! Rose, you two can help me. I need all these wires stripped bare." Every member of the group shared a glance before they walked over to join him.

"Right! Now there's _four_ of us!"

"Then let's move it," Jack urged, unwilling to lose hope. "Into the lift! Isolate the controls!"

The two programmers quickly scurried off.

Lynda came up to the Doctor and Rey, shaking and terrified, but still faintly smiling. "I— I just wanna say, um… thanks, I s'pose. And… I'll do my best!"

"Us too," he told her. For a second, they silently debated the best way of saying goodbye. Neither of them wanted anything heavy, even though they all knew that it might very well be the last goodbye. Lynda looked like she wanted very much to hug him. In the end, they shook hands, laughing embarrassedly. Rey nodded to her a little more solemnly than intended. On her back, she could feel the weight of Rose's stare.

As Lynda left, Jack took her place. "It's been fun," he said simply, trying to give them his signature crooked grin. It fell a little flat. "But I guess this is goodbye."

"Don't talk like that," Rose said. "The Doctor's gonna do it. You just watch him."

"Rose… You're worth fighting her." He cupped her face and gave her a brief kiss on the lips before turning to Rey.

She took his hand, unable to match his determined gaze. Her throat threatened to close up. Her face felt too hot.

"This is real," he told her gently. How ironic that it was now she wished it wasn't. If this was a dream, she could wake up and he wouldn't be going off to his death. "Rey, this isn't a dream."

She nodded sadly. He bent down to whisper in her ear. "Thank you…"

"I haven't done anything yet," she told him, fighting tears.

He pulled back and grinned. "Yeah, you have."

Finally, he turned to the Doctor. "Wish I'd never met you," he lied. "I was better off as a coward." Before the Doctor could stop him, Jack kissed him just like he kissed Rose. When he pulled back he pointed at the exit. "See ya in hell."

And then he was off.

They watched him leave until the doors closed behind his back. "He's gonna be alright," Rose said, trying to convince herself of it. Neither Rey nor the Doctor said anything. "… Isn't he?"

Alone, it was time to get back to work. Stripping wires was a repetitive task that didn't require a lot of thought or concentration, something Rey hated right now. Soon, nearly the entire floor was covered. The three of them sat in a space in the middle of the room, their work laid out before them. She recited her usual calming technique in her head and tried not to think about anything else, like the probability of everyone surviving, or how much it would hurt to be hit by an extermination beam.

"Suppose," Rose began, then trailed off.

"What," the Doctor asked when she made no move to continue.

"What?"

"You said 'suppose.'"

"No, I was just thinking… I mean, obviously you can't, but… you've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?"

He didn't respond. "We become part of the chain of events as soon as we land," Rey explained without stopping her hands. "We're part of the timeline. Changing things is a paradox."

"Yeah, thought it'd be something like that," Rose said bitterly.

"There's another thing the TARDIS could do," the Doctor offered after a beat. "It could take us away…" Rose glanced up at him with a small smile. "We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989."

"No we couldn't," Rey countered softly. When she looked up, she saw that the Doctor was looking down at her. Beneath his cavalier and the determination he was stubbornly keeping to, flickered despair, shame, and tiniest of all, hope.

He quickly looked away to his other side where Rose was. "No, but you could ask. Never even occurred to you, did it? Either of you?"

"Well, I'm just too good," Rose countered.

The moment broke when a computer in the background unexpectedly whirred. "The Delta Wave's started building," the Doctor explained.

"How long does it need?"

They got to their feet, rushing over to the terminal. He plopped down in the chair; Rey and Rose looking over his shoulders on either side of him. All at once, the lightened expression on his died out as he saw the readouts.

"Is that bad," Rose asked.

It was bad. It was worse than bad. Rey couldn't think of a word to convey just how bad it was.

"Okay, it's bad. How bad is it?"

Suddenly, the Doctor brightened and leapt to his feet, so animated it was as if someone had breathed a second, or tenth, life into him. "Rose Tyler, you're a _genius_!" He kissed her forehead, smacking his lips loudly. "We can do it! If I use the TARDIS to cross my old timeline… yes!"

He directed her into the console room, instructing her to hold a lever down and stay. Rey lingered behind, baffled. What was he talking about? What did crossing his timeline have to do with the Delta Wave?

She read that status update. The Delta Wave was halfway ready, they would have no problem getting it done in time if they worked together. But it wasn't refined. It would take too long and take tools they didn't have to concentrate it. If he activated it, half the Earth would get caught in the crossfire.

"Doctor—"

"Rey, please, for once, don't argue and just listen to me."

"But—"

His expression hardened. "I'm sorry."

He shoved her through the TARDIS doors. She stumbled back, unable to do anything as he shut them and locked her inside.

"Doctor!" Rose looked up, surprised from where she stood, still holding down the lever. "Please don't do this! Why do you always do this?"

The rotor rose and fell. The engines groaned. The console room shook as the TARDIS began to dematerialize.

"Doctor, what're you doing," Rose yelled at the doors. "Can I take my hand off? It's moving." She abruptly abandoned her position, running over to pound against the doors. "Doctor, let me out! Let me out! Doctor, what've you done? What's he done?!"

A hologram of the Doctor flickered to life. "This is Emergency Programme One," it said, not looking at either of them, but instead gazing straight ahead. "Rey, now listen, this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing: we must be in danger. And I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape."

"No," Rose protested, lunging forward. She went through the hologram easily, letting out a growl of frustration and began frantically pressing every button she could to get it to stop.

Rey's eyes felt hot and heavy. Her vision was blurring. The walls of the room were simultaneously too close and too far. She knew what it was like to have the ceiling fall in on her, but now it was like the floor beneath had been ripped away.

"And that's okay," the Doctor's image assured them. "Hope it's a good death. But I promised myself I'd look after you. I promised I'd take Rose home, and that's what I'm doing."

She glanced at the console. She knew better than to think she could force the TARDIS back, but her hands itched to work. Some irrational part of her mind told her that if she just _tried_ , she could do it.

"And I bet you're upset, thinking up all sorts of contingencies on how to get back. But hold on and just listen a bit more. The TARDIS can never return for me. Emergency Programme One means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do: let the TARDIS die. Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it; no one will even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world will move on and the box will be buried. And if you want to remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all. One thing."

He turned, and it was like he was right there, looking right at her. The Doctor's eyes were soft and kind as if he was looking at something precious. "Live," he said surely. "That's all you have to do, Rey. Just live."

She shook her head. The hologram flickered and faded as if it had never been there to begin with. Her brain refused to work. She didn't—couldn't—wouldn't—understand. He talked like they'd never see each other again, but she'd gone to his future where he was healthy and alive.

Live? He was telling her to live? Where? The TARDIS was her home, not Nevermore. Her life was traveling with him. Was that all she had to look forward to now? An eternity locked in a mental health institution, being poked and prodded and psychologically dissected day after day?

The engines died. They landed with a little jolt. Rose ran to the doors and threw them open. The Powell Estate greeted her, a row of flats along the road, and a cloudy day that threatened rain.

She ran back to the console. "Come on, fly. How do you fly? Come on, Rey! You know how to fly this thing, don't just stand here—help me!"

"I can't." Her voice cracked. "The TARDIS won't fly for me, not against the Doctor's wishes."

"You don't _know_ that," Rose insisted, continuing to pull levers and push buttons.

She didn't reply, and eventually, Rose stopped banging on the console. She shrunk in on herself, desperately searching for some form of solace. Winter had overtaken the clearing in her head. The grass was covered in frost. The flowers were encased in ice. The river was frozen solid.

Even the elements were just numbers and letters that didn't mean anything.

Mickey came running to them, full of excitement at Rose's return. "I knew it! I was all the way down Clifton's Parade, and I heard the engines and I thought, 'there's only one thing that makes a noise like that.'" He must've gotten a good look at Rose's face because he suddenly calmed and asked her what was wrong.

Rey stood blankly to the side as Rose cried, sobbing her heart out in Mickey's embrace. She wasn't numb, numb would have been a blessing. Instead, she ached like she never had before.

Mickey rang Jackie. He led the girls to a chip shop where Rey sat as blankly as she had stood and Rose stared despondently over a plate of food. Jackie spoke of random, irrelevant things to fill up the silence. She and Mickey were readily eating, trying to pretend everything was alright.

"And it's gone up-market, this place. They're doing little tubs of coleslaw, now. It's not very nice. Tastes a bit sort of clinical."

"Have you tried that new pizza place down Minto Road," Mickey tried.

"What's it selling," Jackie asked, attempting to make conversation.

"Pizza," he answered lamely.

"Oh, that's nice." Rey stared down at the table. It was old linoleum table, the cheap but bulky sort. Easy to keep and maintain. Full of little scratches. "Do they deliver?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh, Rose. Have something to eat," Jackie begged her.

"Two hundred thousand years in the future, he's dying, and there's _nothing_ I can do."

"Well, like you said—two hundred thousand years—it's way off," Jackie pointed out.

"But it's not," Rose exclaimed. "It's now! That fight is happening right now, and he's fighting for us! For the whole planet, and I'm just sitting here eating chips!" She picked one up demonstratively and threw it back down on the plate.

Despite the display, Jackie stayed calm. "Listen to me," she urged, waiting until Rose faced her before continuing. "God knows I have hated that man, but right now, I love him—and d'you know why? Because he did the right thing. He sent you back to me."

Rose wouldn't let the matter drop. "But what do I do every day, mum? What do I do? Get up—catch the bus—go to work—come back home—eat chips and go to bed? Is that it?"

"It's what the rest of us do," Mickey said coldly.

"But I can't!"

"Why, 'cos you're better than us?"

"No, I didn't mean that!"

Abruptly, Rey stood. She'd had enough of the noise and the shouting and the tension. Maybe she mumbled an excuse or maybe it was just in her head. She didn't care enough to find out which before she left the shop. Outside, the streets weren't any better. It was a weekend afternoon—a Saturday she noted bitterly—and there were people everywhere. Couples, families, groups of friends. All on their way from or to somewhere, all of them so loud.

She picked a direction and ran. If there was a red light, she turned. If cars blocked the street, she used an alley. For once she didn't keep track of where she was going or where she had been. There was no mental map in her head, just an urge to keep running until she got away.

Minutes, hours—who could tell—later, she finally found silence in an empty playground. There was graffiti wherever there was space and some places there wasn't. Sweating, still wearing her sleep clothes and the Doctor's jacket, she loitered by a bench too disgusting to sit on, and tried to catch her breath. The jog had warmed enough of her that she felt ashamed at her outburst.

Why hadn't she jumped yet? Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to imagine her hearing going out and vision going black and tingling in her feet. If she jumped now, maybe she could jump back to the Doctor. She never traveled to a different place in the same time on her own, but if she could get out of the current timeline, maybe she could get back to him. He was always nearby when she jumped.

Would she be stuck here without him? Live, he had asked her, but he never said how. She had gotten her wish, she was out of Nevermore, but what now? Did she just forget about him? How? And what about the others—Martha, Donna, Amy and Rory, Clara. Were they just like the seed heads of a dandelion, waiting to be scattered in the wind, forever separated now that they were blown apart?

When she opened her eyes, the paint on the ground caught her notice. She had initially dismissed it as just another graffiti piece during her cursory scan of her surroundings, but the curve in front of her was definitely part of a letter. She angled her neck, trying to decipher it.

BAD WOLF

That couldn't be a coincidence. Her eyes darted around. Now that she properly focused, she noticed that all the other graffiti, every single message, said the same thing. But why was it here? Why now? What use was a warning when it was too late? When the warned had no way of spreading the message?

Rey bumped into the bench, not noticing how close to it she had gotten in her haste to figure out the words around her. It was vandalized too, some things written in marker, others in white out. But what caught her attention was the drawing scratched into the center. It was small, barely the size of a ten pence coin, but she would never mistake something else for it. She had seen it before, in the journal in the Library. In her journals in Nevermore.

It was a crude, rough drawing that a child would come up with. Of course, since she was a child when she made the first one. Her inspiration came from the moniker they'd given her. Two rectangles misaligned, one with two triangles on top and the other with four lines coming out of the bottom and a fifth out the back. She would always scribble in all the white spaces when she was done to color it.

It was supposed to be a black cat.

In her clearing, a sunbeam snuck through the clouds. The first hint of spring arrived the same way spring always started: a chance breakthrough.

Bad Wolf was a warning. It meant danger. It meant something was wrong and needed fixing. It meant the end of the world. But this tiny, little, insignificant drawing meant something else.

She ran again, racing through the streets like a mad woman. Her hair trailed in the wind behind her. It would be a mess of tangles and knots after this, but she didn't care. She had to find Rose and get back to the TARDIS.

Jackie was gone, but Rose and Mickey were still in the chip shop where Rey left them. Rose was now slowly munching on chips, and Mickey was equally as glum. Neither of them were looking at each other. They both jumped when Rey burst in, flushed and panting, leaning on the table.

"There's a way back."

She looked at Rose head on, refusing to turn away for once.

"To the Doctor," she clarified. "There's a way back to the Doctor."

Without another word, they rushed back to the TARDIS. Surprisingly, Mickey chose to accompany them. Now that they were back inside, however, Rey hesitated. She knew it was possible, now all they had to do was make it actual. But that was easier said than done with the TARDIS in sleep mode.

"All the TARDIS needs to do is make a return trip. Just… reverse," Rose reasoned hopefully.

"Yeah, but we still can't do it," Mickey unhelpfully pointed out.

"The TARDIS is alive," Rey told them. "She's telepathic. But right now she's covered her ears, so we have to get her to listen."

"And how do we do that?"

"We need to get inside it, yeah," Rose asked. "Last time I saw you, with the Slitheen, this middle bit opened… And there was this light…"

Oh, Rey was not going to like this. "The Heart of the TARDIS."

"So if we can open it, we can make contact," Rose concluded. "I can tell it what to do!"

"Rose…"

"Mm?"

"If you go back, you're gonna die," Mickey said in a quiet voice.

"That's a risk I've gotta take," she told him confidently. "'Cos there's nothing left for me here."

"Nothing?"

Mickey winced and Rey remembered that they used to date. The Doctor had told her that before Rose traveled with them, Mickey was her boyfriend. The last time, things had been tense, and Rose had been so upset when Mickey left. She still had feelings for Mickey, but they weren't the same as they had been. Rose had made her choice, and she had chosen the Doctor.

"No."

To his credit, Mickey squared himself up and still decided to help. "Okay, if that's what you think… let's get this thing open."

He left to pick up his car, a bright yellow thing. Using a hook and chain, they connected one end to the automobile's rear bumper and the other to the TARDIS console. He climbed in behind the wheel, turned the ignition, and punched the gas.

Nothing happened.

"Faster," Rose yelled.

Mickey pressed down on the gas pedal harder. Steam began to rise up from beneath the car as the engine threatened to overheat. The smell of burnt rubber left a bitter taste in Rey's mouth as the friction of his wheels against the concrete started to wear them away.

"Come on!" Mickey's voice could be heard through his open window.

"It's not moving!"

The taut chain shuddered in the air and snapped. The console panel didn't so much as budge. Rose yelped and kicked it, full of frustration.

Rey tried to think. The TARDIS was a tough old girl. Tougher than expected. It wasn't just force they needed to open the panel, they also needed to prove to her it was worth it to go against the Doctor's wishes. She wasn't a machine to be manhandled, she was a sentient being they needed to convince.

But Rey was also out of revelations for the day.

Somehow or another, Jackie knew where to find them. She stood over Rose who was slumped in the seat next to the console. "It was never gonna work, sweetheart," she said gently, trying to soothe her. "And the Doctor knew that. He just wanted you to be safe."

"We can't give up," Rey said.

"Look the door," Jackie suggested. "Walk away."

"Dad wouldn't give up," Rose suddenly said.

"Well, he's not here, is he? And even if he was, he'd say the same thing."

"No, he wouldn't," Rose argued. "He'd tell me to try anything. If I could save the Doctor's life… try anything."

Jackie stiffened. "Well, we're never gonna know."

"Well, I know. 'Cos I met him. I met Dad."

Rey turned away. Spoilers aside, this was something private. She didn't have the right to listen in on something so personal to Rose. A few seconds later, Jackie ran from the TARDIS, leaving Rose sobbing. She cried until she had run out of tears and then dry sobbed until she was too exhausted for even that.

The console was hard against Rey's head as she leaned against it. Not only that, it was cold too. The TARDIS never felt so cold to her before. She had always kicked the heat up a bit whenever Rey appeared. She thought it was the machine's way of saying she was glad Rey was traveling with them.

 _Please_ , she asked silently, knowing that no one could hear. _Please work. Please let us go back._

Mickey tried to stay optimistic, but Rose was too dejected to listen. "Mum was right… maybe we should just lock the door and walk away."

"I'm not having that. I'm not having you just— just give up now. No way. We just need something stronger than my car… something bigger… something like that!"

Rose and Rey both looked up to see what he was talking about. The roar of an approaching engine echoed in her ears, and it was a big vehicle judging by how deep the resonance was. As if to prove her point, a huge recovery truck turned the corner. To everyone's surprise, Jackie was at the wheel. It came to a halt just outside the TARDIS, and she climbed out, eyes rimmed red but hardened in determined.

"Right. You've only got this until 6 o'clock, so get on with it."

"Mum, where the hell did you get that from?"

"Rodrigo. He owes me a favour. Nevermind why, but you were right about your dad, sweetheart. He was full of mad ideas, and this is exactly what he would've done. Now, get on with it before I change my mind."

She threw the keys at Mickey. He rushed to the door of the truck while Rey went for the chain. It was thicker than the one they'd used on Mickey's car. Sturdier and heavier. Rose had to help her carry it back inside, and together they fixed it on the console. Jackie watched by the doors, acting as a relay between them and Mickey.

He started the car and eased it forward. The chain pulled tight.

"Keep going," Rose shouted to her mother.

"Put your foot down," Jackie called to Mickey, who complied.

"Faster!"

"Give it some more, Mickey!"

"Keep going!"

"Come on, come on!"

The metal of the chain started creaking loudly, protesting against the strain. Rey placed a hand on the console. "Please work," she mumbled too low to be heard over the engine. "Please, please work."

"Keep going," Rose urged.

"Give it some more!"

Finally, finally, the latch was ripped off. The panel flew open, bathing them in a blinding golden light. Rey was transfixed. The same sick feeling from last time started up again, but even that couldn't get her to look away. The light felt like it was sinking into her every pore, infusing with her organs, coursing through her body on a cellular level.

It was warm. Warm enough to completely melt the winter in her mind. So warm it was almost hot.

From far away she heard the rotor start again.

"Coward. Any day," the Doctor said. It was true. He was always a coward. Always running. And he would rather be the worst sort of coward than the type of man who could kill billions and call himself a savior.

He was okay with this sort of end, if only he didn't have so many regrets. A man like him was never going to be without any, but he had so many. He regretted all the places he put off going, thinking _it'll be there tomorrow_. He regretted all the deaths that happened because of him—Jack and Lynda, all the people who'd died because he put them in danger, or who he could have saved if he was a little faster, stronger, cleverer.

He regretted not finding Rey because he had finally figured it out, but only when it was too late. He had figured out what she did, and the why behind it. He never figured out where though. Where she was held; where the mysterious Nevermore was. He regretted so much that he would never get the chance to storm the place and save her like she deserved to be saved.

"Mankind will be harvested because of your weakness," the Emperor taunted.

"And what about me? Am I becoming one of your angels?"

"You are the Heathen. You will be exterminated."

"Maybe it's time." He closed his eyes, not ready but not fighting. The Daleks that had stormed the room surrounded him, gunstalks at the ready.

Faintly, impossibly, he heard the sound of the TARDIS engines. It couldn't be. It had to be a trick, a figment of his imagination, a final comfort in his last hour. His eyes snapped open, searching for the source.

"Alert! TARDIS materializing!"

It appeared in the exact same spot it had left, and he had never not wanted to see that daft blue box more than now. What if the Daleks got their metaphorical hands on her? What about Rey and Rose? Were they okay?

The doors popped open. The golden light that poured out was so bright, he had to cover his eyes with his hand. The two girls stood in the doorway, Rose glowing gold and holding Rey's hand. When she stepped forward, the light curled around her.

"What've you done?"

"I looked into the TARDIS. And the TARDIS looked into me." Her accent was gone. Normally blue eyes were ablaze in gold.

"You looked into the Time Vortex—Rose, no one's meant to see that."

"This is the abomination," the Emperor Dalek screamed.

"Exterminate!" A Dalek fired at her. Rose held her hand up and the beam froze midair before reversing back into the gunstalk as if someone had hit the rewind button. Well, someone had, he supposed. Rose.

"I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words…" On the wall behind her the _BAD WOLF_ of _BAD WOLF CORPORATION_ peeled off and floated away. "I scatter them in time and space. A warning to lead myself here."

"Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now." She looked dead ahead and didn't even see him. "You've got the entire Vortex running through your head. You're gonna burn."

She should have already. No human was made to withstand the force of the Time Vortex. The instant she tried to take it in, she should have been vaporized, unless…

He looked at the clasped hands between her and Rey. That they were so close was odd enough, but Rey, who normally was so adverse to skin-to-skin contact, gave no indication of discomfort at holding Rose's hand.

"I want you safe," Rose said. Tears left their tracks down her cheeks. "My Doctor. Protected from the false God."

"You cannot hurt me," the Emperor boasted. "I am immortal."

"You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space—every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." Rose raised her arm and the Dalek in the center of the group dissolved into golden particles. "Everything must come to dust… all things. Everything dies." She turned her hand and all the others met the same fate. "The Time War ends."

"I will not die," the Emperor insisted. "I cannot die!"

But it was no use. The Emperor, the entire Dalek Fleet, all of it was reduced to golden particles, fading into oblivion. Rose had her arm raised, staring straight ahead, so still in a way she never was.

"Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go," he urged.

"How can I let go of this," Rose asked. "I bring life…"

"But this is wrong! You can't control life and death!"

"But I can," she said. "The sun and the moon… the day and night."

"You're hurting Rey!"

Rose was still, but next to her, Rey was shaking.

Rey wasn't golden. She looked like just ordinary Rey, like his Rey, no different that when he last saw her. Except her eyes were seeing something very far away. She hadn't said a word, hadn't moved a muscle except to follow Rose when the other girl stepped out of the TARDIS.

And she was in pain.

One human couldn't handle the time vortex, but two could share. Especially if one of them was as special as Rey was.

He walked up to her, terrified. "I can see," she finally said, voice barely louder than a whisper. "Everything and all of you… But I can't see… I don't know where I am… where am I?"

"You're here," he swore. "You're with me."

"But I'm not. Is this what you see? Everything that is… that was… that could be?"

He understood what he had to do. "Yeah. That's what I see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?"

He stepped close. Rose was still looking straight ahead, as if she was the one put on pause now. If he looked close, he could see that the golden light surrounding her wasn't just swirling in a cycle. It circled her then faded, and the new light that took its place was coming from Rey and their clasped hands.

"I can't be here… This isn't…"

"This is real," he promised her. "This isn't a dream. You're here, with me."

"It hurts."

"I think you need a Doctor." One hand came up and tapped Rose's temple. She instantly snapped out of the daze she was in, eyes fading back to their normal blue. Reflexively, she released Rey's hand, and the light abruptly faded from her.

"Doctor? What's going on? What happened, why can't I remember?"

It was still coming out of Rey's palm, burning him when he touched her. Oddly enough, the pattern left behind wasn't a handprint, but two rectangles, two triangles, and five lines. It looked like a child's drawing, and he swore he'd seen it before.

Gently, so gently, he leaned down and kissed her. She was brimming with vortex energy, chalked full of it. He pulled out every bit that he could take, ignoring the way it made him burn. The now familiar process begin to creep up on him, but he ignored that too. In exchange for the time energy he took from her, he poured some regeneration energy back in.

She collapsed in his arms. He held her up—she was so small and light, a sliver in his arms. Breathing out, he blew the golden light back at the TARDIS, returning it to its proper place. And then he took a moment just to enjoy her in his arms. He had never held her like this before, and he doubted he would get another chance.

And even if he did, the man who held her wouldn't be him.

He brought her into the TARDIS. She woke slowly, confused. As was Rose. Well, the next him could explain it if need be. Right now, he needed to focus. He could only hold back to process for so long and he wanted to get them away beforehand.

"What happened," Rey asked, brow furrowing a little in a manner that was just adorable.

Rose shrugged. "Don't you remember," he asked her.

"I heard singing…"

"That's right! I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."

"I was home," Rose began, struggling to remember. "No, I wasn't, we were in the TARDIS, and…"

"Doctor? What's wrong?" Rey studied him carefully. He should have know that she would figure out something was wrong. So sharp and observant, his Rey.

"Oh, Rey. And Rose Tyler. I was gonna take you two to so many places. Barcelona—not the city Barcelona, the planet. You'd love it. Fantastic place—you've got dogs with no noses." He chuckled, remembering the place fondly. Rose giggled, but Rey still looked worried. "Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny!"

"Then, why can't we go," Rose asked.

"Maybe you will. And maybe I will. But not like this."

There was recognition in her eyes now. Surprisingly enough, she had never been around for one of his past regenerations. Actually, when he thought about it, it was only when he became this version of himself that she started stopping by more often.

That was something a different him could mull over.

"You're not making sense," Rose protested.

"I might never make sense again! I might have two heads. Or no head!" He laughed again, wishing he knew the right words to lighten the mood. "Imagine me with no head! And don't say that's an improvement… but it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're gonna end up with—"

A wave of pain suddenly wracked his body. He wasn't prepared for the way the force of the regeneration energy swelled. Momentarily, he lost his hold on it, like someone holding an untied balloon accidentally loosening their grip. It propelled him back. The air was punched from his lungs.

"Doctor!"

Rey made an abortive move to rush to his side but he yelled at her to stay away.

"Doctor, tell me what's going on," Rose urged.

"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that! Every cell in my body's dying."

"You'll be okay," Rey told him. He never understood why people called her cold or stoic. Her emotions were so plain to see if only people took the time to actually look. Right now she was worried. Rey was a fretter—she knew he would be okay, she had seen it, and she still worried.

"Yeah," he agreed. Then, to Rose, he said, "Time Lords have this little trick, it's… sort of a way of cheating death. Except… it means I'm gonna change." He looked back at Rey. Was it possible to have your hearts break while you were regenerating? Theoretically, the answer was probably no, but he was giving a good shot at disproving that now. "I'm not gonna see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face."

But at least it wasn't over for her yet. She still had this him in her future, and for some reason that comforted him.

"And before I go…"

"Don't say that," Rose argued, cutting him off. Obviously, his attempts at not upsetting her had failed. Thankfully, she backed down with him only needed to say her name, listening intently.

"Before I go," he continued, "I just wanna tell you, both of you." He looked at Rose. "You were fantastic." He turned to look at Rey. "Absolutely fantastic. And d'you know what?"

She shook her head. He grinned. He wanted that to be the last thing he did to her: smile.

"So was I."

And finally, he couldn't hold it back anymore. The regeneration energy exploded out of him, every cell dying and healing and dying and healing. There was a moment where his entire mind when blank. No running thoughts, no memories, no fears. Just the knowledge with absolute surety that he was the Doctor.

And then it all came crashing back.

He could see again. The TARDIS looked the same if not a bit more… beat up. Oops. His fault. He probably should have tried to make it outside before regenerating. Rey wasn't looking at him like he was a stranger so at least there was that.

"Hello! Okay—ooh." He gulped. His voice sounded different. More than that, his mouth felt different. "New teeth. That's weird. So where was I?"

"Barcelona," she reminded him. He beamed. Where would he be without her?

"Oh, that's right! Barcelona." He flipped a lever and off they went.

* * *

 **Thoughts? Questions? Random ramblings you want to shout out to the void?**


	20. Interlude 2

Heels clicking against the floor were the only sounds in the otherwise silent corridor. The Madame didn't need an escort, but sometimes it good to inconvenience others. It reminded them who was in charge and kept them on their toes. She didn't doubt the loyalty of any worker under her, but even the best ideas needed a little reinforcing sometimes.

They passed door after door, all of which hid nearly identical rooms. They were all for show down here. The other levels of the Nevermore Institute for Mental Health operated as they should, but this one was special. There was only patient housed here, and it was important to keep her away from others.

The orderly in charge of showing her the way kept glancing back nervously. She would have to have a talk with the board again. Honestly, what sort of people were they hiring? No doubt under-qualified, overpaid thugs, that was what sort. Nowadays, any idiot with two braincells to rub together thought they could accomplish anything just for being born.

The orderly scurried off with barely more than a squeak as they finally reached their destination. The Madame mentally tutted. No, not cut out for this at all.

Inside, Dr. Usher examined the medical chart with a frown. Were she twenty years younger and half as ambitious as she had been at that age, the Madame would call him handsome. As of now, she only recognized him as a colleague and a fellow believer at best. She knew more about his personal life than she liked, and approved of even less of it. If he wasn't currently a necessary person, she would have long since gotten rid of and replaced him with someone who knew better than to mix business with pleasure.

"And how are we doing today?"

She already knew the answer, of course. She had been briefed on the way. But she wanted him to explain it. He answered to her, and he'd best remember that.

"Resting, finally. Probably for a good, long while. She coded three times this afternoon. We almost had to intubate her."

"And now?

"She's stable. Responding well. Ready to move onto Stage II."

The Madame smiled. "Good. That's good."

He cleared his throat nervously. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you know this would happen? It went just like you said. Exactly."

"Sometimes secrets are a good thing, Dr. Usher. If just anyone knew the whole plan, imagine how easy it would be betrayed." She made sure that he understood she meant it purely on a hierarchical level. As in, people on the lower rungs need not concern themselves with the affairs at the top.

Dr. Usher immediately straightened, as if good posture was enough to erase his impudence.

Message received.

He put the chart down. The Madame put her hand on it, fingers tracing the underline of the name printed at the top. So long as it remained, the plan was on track.

She didn't stay very long. The lights at the building messed with her depth perception. The curse of only having one eye to work with. Maybe she would get those replaced as well. They could use the money saved from terminating ill-suited employees.

Madame Kovarian left the Nevermore Institute without a look back. Satisfaction brewed in her gut. The pieces were finally coming into place. At last, victory was in sight.

* * *

 **And so concludes part one of this story!** **If you haven't already guessed, there will be a sequel.** **Thanks so much to everyone who stuck with me. I'm so excited to share more of Rey's story with you all. Watch out, it only gets gnarlier from here on out!**


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